r ~~" 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  OlEGQ 


Grace  C.  Strachan. 


Mrs.  Beverly  Dabney  Benson   (nee  Jean  Strachan) 


EQUAL  PAY 
FOR   EQUAL  WORK 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  JUSTICE 

BEI^G  MADE  BY  THE  WOMEN  TEACHERS 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


BY 

GRACE  C.  STRACHAN 


36 


1910 

B.  F.  BUCK   &   COMPANY 

160  Fifth  Avenue 

NEW  YORK 


COPTRIGHT,  1910 

By  B.  F.  buck  &  COMPANY 
Nkw  Yokk 


To  my  sister,  Mrs.  Beverly  Dabney  Benson^  nee  Jean  Strachan, 

who,  though  not  a  teacher  herself,  worked  devotedly 

and  untiringly  for*'  Our  Cause,' ^  I  lovingly 

dedicate  this  book. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/equalpayforequalOOstraiala 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

Preface     7 

Organization  of  I.  A.  W.  T.  and  List  of  Honor- 
ary Vice-Presidents 15 

I  Foreword 23 

General  Outline 25 

Chronological  Summary 46 

II  Are  Men  Teachers  Needed?     ....      48 
III  Are  Men  Teachers  Needed  for  Special 

Purposes? S3 

rV  Are  Men  Teachers  Needed  Because  They 

Are  Better  Teachers? 58 

V  Are    Men    Teachers    Needed    for    Their 

Manly  Influence? 67 

VI  Are   Men  Teachers   Needed  to  Prevent 

Feminization? 81 

VII  Supply  and  Demand 90 

VIII  Scarcity  of  Women  Teachers  Breeds  De- 
terioration IN  Quality  of  Teachers  and 

Overcrowded  Classes 97 

IX  Scarcity  of  Teachers,  but  Unappointed 

Men 106 

X  False  Cry  of  Scarcity  of  High  School 

Men Ill 

XI  The  Family-to-Support  Argument     .     .     117 
XII  Civil  Service  and  Salary  Schedules    .     .     128 
XIII  Women  Teachers  and  Other  Women  Civil 

Service  Employees 135 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER.  9ABM 

XIV  Cost .  143 

XV  Is  THE  Davis  Law  Unconstitutional?     .  183 

XVI  Glaring  Inequalities  and  Inconsistencies  197 

XVII  The  White  Bill  of   1907 202 

XVIII  The  White  Bill  of  1908 211 

XIX  Conciliation  Committee  and  Six-and-Six 

Plan 217 

XX  Gledhill-Foley  Bill 229 

XXI  The  Somers    Resolution 241 

XXII  Discriminations  Other  Than   Salary     .  250 

XXIII  Home  Rule  and  Mandatory  Legislation  268 

XXIV  Some  Features  of  Hearing  Before  Mayor 

McClellan 273 

XXV  Teachers  and  Politics 277 

XXVI  Bird  Story 332 

Part   II.    Speeches,   Mass   Meetings,   Hearings, 

Banquets 334 

Part  III.   Editorial  Comment 428 

Part  IV.   Letters 472 

Part  V.    Endorsements 545 

Part  VI.  Equal  Pay  Bills  and  Other  Documents  555 


PREFACE 

Salary — A  periodical  allowance  made  as  compensation  to 
a  person  for  his  official  or  professional  services  or  for  his 
regular  work. — Funk  and  Wagnalls. 

Notice  the  words,  "a  person."  Here  is  no  differentia- 
tion between  male  persons  and  female  persons. 

Yet  the  City  of  New  York  pays  a  "  male "  person  for 
certain  "  professional  services  "  $900,  while  paying  a  "  fe- 
male "  person  only  $600  for  the  same  "  professional  serv- 
ices." Stranger  still,  it  pays  for  certain  experience  of  a 
"  male "  person  $105,  while  paying  a  "  female "  person 
only  $40  for  the  identical  experience.  These  are  but  sam- 
ples of  the  "  glaring  inequalities  "  in  the  teachers'  salary 
schedules. 

Why  is  the  male  in  the  teaching  profession  diff^erentiated 
from  the  male  in  every  other  calling,  when  his  salary  is 
concerned  ? 

Why  does  the  city  differentiate  the  woman  it  hires  to 
teach  its  children  from  the  woman  it  hires  to  take  steno- 
graphic notes,  use  a  typewriter,  follow  up  truants,  inspect 
a  tenement,  or  issue  a  license  ? 

Why  are  not  the  appointees  from  the  eligible  lists  estab- 
lished by  the  Department  of  Education,  entitled  to  the  same 
privileges  and  rights  as  appointees  from  Civil  Service  lists 
from  other  City  and  State  Departments? 

Some  ask,  "  Shall  the  single  woman,  in  teaching,  be  given 
the  married  woman's  wage  ?  "  I  do  not  know  what  they 
mean,  but  I  say,  "  Why  not  the  single  woman  in  teaching 
just  as  much  as  the  single  woman  in  washing,  in  farming, 
in  dressmaking,  in  nursing,  in  telephoning  ?  " 

Again,  some  ask,  is  there  such  a  thing  as  "  equal  work  " 
by  two  people? 

Technically,  no.  No  two  people  do  •exactly  the  same 
work  in  the  same  way.    This  is  true  of  all  professional  and 


8  PREFACE 

official  workc  Compare  Mayor  Gaynor's  work  with  Mayor 
McCIellan's.  Will  any  one  say  their  work  as  Mayor  is 
"  Equal  Work  "  ?  And  yet  the  pay  is  the  same„  Do  all 
policemen  do  "  Equal  Work  "  ?  Yet  they  receive  equal  pay. 
So  with  firemen,  school  physicians,  tenement  house  inspec- 
tors. The  taxpayers,  no  doubt,  believe  that,  judged  by  his 
work.  Mayor  Gaynor  is  worth  a  far  higher  salary  than 
many  of  his  predecessors.  But  a  great  corporation  like  the 
City  of  New  York  cannot  attempt  to  pay  each  of  its  em- 
ployees according  to  the  work  of  that  particular  street 
cleaner  or  fireman  or  stenographer,  and  sq  must  be  content 
with  classifying  its  positions,  and  fixing  a  salary  for  each. 
So  should  it  do  for  its  teachers.    That  is  all  we  ask. 

The  male  teachers  argue  for  a  "  family  wage  "  for  the 
"  adult  male"  Who  ever  heard  a  man  who  is  a  doctor  or  a 
lawyer  or  a  plumber  or  a  grocer  or  a  baseball  player  or  a 
barber  or  a  janitor,  advance  such  argument? 

This  is  surely  "special  pleading,"  A  logical  interpreta- 
tion would  make  it  necessary  for  the  Board  of  Education 
to  base  each  salary  on  the  individual  worker's  family.  Man- 
ifestly on  such  a  basis  it  would  be  unfair  to  pay  the  wealthy 
bachelor  the  same  salary  as  the  poor  married  man ;  or  the 
married  man  with  seven  children  and  a  mother-in-law  to 
support,  the  same  as  the  married  man  whose  father-in-law 
supports  him.  Furthermore,  the  "  family  wage  "  restricted 
to  "  adult  male  "  presupposes  that  the  woman  teacher  has 
no  family  obligations.  All  intelligent  people  know  that  this 
is  not  true.  But  the  chief  objection  to  the  "  family  wage  " 
is  that  a  just  application  of  such  a  standard  to  any  sched- 
ules, necessitates  inquiry  into  one's  private  life,  which  is 
an  intrusion  to  the  extent  almost  of  violating  the  Consti- 
tution. 

What  good  citizen  will  deny  that  selling  1800  pounds  of 
coal  as  a  full  ton  is  bad  for  both  the  buyer  and  the  seller  ? 
The  former  is  cheated,  but  the  latter  is  a  cheat. 

Paying  a  man  more  money  for  teaching  a  class  than  is 
paid  a  woman  for  teaching  the  same  class  breeds  two  seri- 
ous evils  for  men  teachers.  The  lesser  of  these  evils  is  the 
lessening  of  their  chance  of  appointment. 


PREFACE  9 

But  Sy  far  tHe  greater  evil  to  the  man  teacher  in  the  un- 
just salary  schedule,  is  the  degeneration  of  his  fine  sense  of 
truth,  of  honor,  of  justice.  This  placing  of  a  false  and 
inflated  value  on  his  services  causes  him  to  imagine  he  is 
something  that  he  is  not.  It  is  as  if  a  four-foot  man 
propped  up  on  stilts  should  think  that  he  v^ras  actually  a 
six-foot  man,  and  eligible  for  a  place  in  the  "Broadway 
Squad."  An  unbiased  judge  v^^ould  soon  expose  his  mas- 
querading and  his  true  stature. 

It  is  akin  to  all  those  deceptions  exemplified  in  such  say- 
ings as  "A  lion  in  sheep's  clothing."  Not,  however,  that  a 
*  male  teacher  who  is  opposing  his  sisters  in  the  profession, 
is  comparable  to  a  lion. 

It  is  inevitable  that  the  male  teacher  having  been  put  by 
the  State  in  a  special  and  privileged  class  based  simply  on 
the  accident  of  sex,  should  come  to  think  he  is  some  strange 
and  unusual  creature  that  must  be  pampered  and  decorated 
and  even  fed  and  clothed  at  the  expense  directly  of  his 
sister  workers  and  indirectly  of  the  community  which  sup- 
ports him, 

A  man  who  thinks  he  is  funny  when  he  is  not,  becomes 
a  bore.  A  man  who  thinks  he  is  serious  when  he  is  only 
trite,  becomes  a  joke.  But  a  man  who  thinks  he  is  worthy 
when  he  is  not,  becomes  an  unconscious  and  potential  hyp- 
ocrite— a  Pharisee,  a  "  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbal." 

Is  there  not  great  danger  that  the  person — who  simply 
because  he  happens  to  be  of  the  male  sex  receives  twice  as 
big  a  salary  as  another  person  in  an  identical  position  who 
happens  to  be  of  the  female  sex — ^will  gradually  become  an 
undesirable  citizen.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  he  knows  in 
his  heart  that  the  children  in  the  woman's  class  are  deriv- 
ing greater  benefit  from  her  life  and  service  than  the  chil- 
dren in  his  class  are  obtaining  from  his.  Is  he  not  taking 
unto  himself  things  that  are  not  rightfully  his  ?  And  must 
it  not  follow,  as  the  night  the  day,  that  his  sense  of  truth 
is  warped;  his  sense  of  justice,  untrustworthy;  his  sense 
of  right  generally,  unbalanced  ? 

This  very  male  teacher,  however,  whose  perception  of 
true  values  has  been  blunted  and  distorted  by  the  false 


10  PREFACE 

value  put  upon  his  services,  is  set  up  as  thd  mentor  and  the 
model  for  our  boys  and  girls.  Does  it  not  inevitably  fol- 
low that  our  boys  and  girls  must  suffer?  Their  sense  of 
true  values,  their  fineness  of  judgment,  in  short,  their  whole 
moral  nature,  is  endangeredo  You  can  not  draw  pure 
water  from  a  pollutea  well. 

Who  will  deny  that  a  railroad  track  with  one  of  its  rails 
depressed  three  feet  below  the  other  is  dangerous  to  all 
who  travel  on  it?  I  hold  that  all  who  are  connected  with 
the  enforcement  and  the  operation  of  our  unjust  salary 
schedules  are  in  danger  of  moral  degeneration.  There- 
fore, I  hold  that  the  entire  community  should  fight  the  un- 
just salary  schedules  paid  our  teachers,  as  immoral  and  as 
a  menace  to  the  welfare  of  the  State. 

Let  us  all — those  in  the  teaching  system  and  those  out 
of  it — who  are  interested  in  making  effective  th€  purpose 
of  our  noble  forefathers  who  planned  our  great  and  glori- 
ous Constitution  "to  estabUsh  justice**;  and  "to  promote 
the  general  welfare,"  unite  in  the  determination  to  bring 
about  a  speedy  amendment  to  this  dangerous  law. 

Senator  Dolliver,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Educa- 
tion and  Labor,  discussing  a  bill  to  prohibit  child  labor  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  said :  "  A  strong  feeling  prevails 
in  Congress  that  child  labor  regulation  should  be  left  to 
the  states.  One  of  the  arguments  that  will  be  made  for 
the  proposed  legislation  for  the  District  of  Columbia  will 
be  that  if  Congress  takes  up  child  labor  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  handles  it  without  gloves,  it  will  set  a  good 
example  for  states  that  are  slow  in  dealing  properly  with 
this  subject." 

Let  New  York  City  handle  the  "  woman  labor  **  trouble 
without  gloves. 

The  facts  set  forth  hereafter  prove  that  the  State  of 
New  York  and  the  City  of  New  York  degrade  and  belittle 
their  women  teachers  in  a  markedly  unusual  way,  and 
to  a  markedly  unusual  degree.  Do  not  the  women  teach- 
ers resent  this  degradation  and  this  belittling?  Yes,  the 
women  teachers  do.  But  often  they  are  afraid  to  voice 
their  resentment.    Some  of  them  are  intimidated  by  their 


PREFACE  II 

superior  officers.  The  women  teachers  of  New  York  City, 
though,  after  years  of  private  complaining  and  inward  re- 
senting, have  formed  themselves  into  a  great  united  body 
whose  voice  is  being  heard  'round  the  world.  There  are 
so  many  of  us — fifteen  thousand  and  more — that  the  very 
strength  of  numbers  has  given  us  courage;  and  the  timid, 
scattered  cries  of  individuals  have  swelled  into  one  great 
grand  choral  that  reaches  the  hearts  of  the  people.  And 
the  people  rule! 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  of 
the  City  of  New  York  sends  greeting  to  all  its  sisters,  and 
promises  that  the  degradation  and  belittling  will  disappear 
"  as  mists  of  the  morning."  The  recognition  of  women 
is  but  in  its  morning. 

Statistics  show  that  the  number  of  male  teachers  is  not 
decreasing  in  the  City  of  New  York,  but  that  it  is  increas- 
ing at  a  rate  higher  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  country; 
that  indeed  it  is  upwards  of  25  per  cent,  greater  than  City 
Superintendent  Maxwell  is  said  to  think  necessary. 

The  fetish  of  feminization  is  exploded  by  such  author- 
ities as  Professor  Dewey  and  Professor  Thomdike  of  Co- 
lumbia. It  is  upheld  only  by  foreigners  unacquainted  with 
us,  our  customs,  and  our  schools,  and  by  a  few  misguided 
followers  of  such  foreigners. 

The  much  mooted  law  of  "  Supply  and  Demand "  is 
really  a  boomerang  argument  in  the  hands  of  our  oppo- 
nents ;  for  besides  the  exposition  offered  by  "  The  Associa- 
tion of  Unappointed  Mtn  Teachers,"  figures  from  Super- 
intendent Maxwell's  Tenth  Annual  Report  show  that  in- 
stead of  a  scarcity  there  is  an  excess  of  teachers  in  our 
high  schools. 

"  Equal  Pay "  for  men  and  women  teachers  is  the  rule 
in  the  cities  of  the  great,  free,  progressive  West. 

"  Equal  Pay  "  was  the  rule  in  Brooklyn  until  the  passage 
of  the  Davis  Law  in  1900. 

The  chief  obstacle  in  our  path,  is  the  cost  of  "  Equal 
Pay  "  in  dollars  and  cents.  Think  of  that !  Then  remem- 
ber that  this  is  the  country  of  Washington  and  Lincoln 
and  Webster  and  Patrick  Henry.    Can  any  true  American 


12  PREFACE 

say,  "  I  know  you  are  not  getting  a  square  deal,  but  I  won't 
help  you  because  it  would  cost  me  a  dollar  or  two?  Was 
it  because  the  tax  on  tea  would  cost  a  penny  or  two  that 
our  forefathers  fought  the  War  of  the  Revolution? 

There  is  much  said  about  "the  proper  calibre  of  men 
teachers,"  all  of  which  propounds  the  theory  that  money 
is  the  only  bait  that  will  attract  men  to  teaching,  but  little 
is  said  about  the  far  more  important  thing — "  the  proper 
calibre  of  women  teachers."  Yet  the  facts  are  that  the 
Board  has  for  several  years  found  it  impossible  to  get  a 
sufficient  number  of  women  teachers  "  of  the  proper  cal- 
ibre." 

This  unfortunate  condition  will  persist  while  the  Board 
of  Education  is  encouraged  by  the  state  in  the  Davis  Law. 
and  is  permitted  by  the  city,  to  continue  its  unfair  treat- 
ment of  its  women  teachers.  I  would  consider  it  a  mat- 
ter for  regret,  if  one  of  my  four  nieces  or  eight  nephews 
should  feel  called  upon  to  teach  under  our  present  system. 
I  want  my  nephews  to  be  manly  men,  and  my  nieces  not  to 
be  contaminated  by  an  environment  of  injustice. 


JUSTICE 

Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  justice; 
for  they  shall  have  their  fill.     (Matt,  v.) 

"  When  people  quit  believing  in  justice,  there's  nothing 
doing  in  making  them  better." — Policeman  John  F.  Foley, 
in  Globe   May  23,  1910. 

"  A  tower  four  square  and  impregnable  is  the  just  man. 
He  is  beacon  and  sanctuary  for  his  fellows.  He  is  pan- 
oplied in  justice — that  virtue  which  maketh  for  sterling 
character  and  which  is  one  of  the  four  strong  hinges  upon 
which  the  whole  moral  order  turns.  It  is  more  than  hon- 
esty, which  is  one  of  its  features  only,  and  it  vitalizes 
honor,  which  is  its  bloom  and  fragrance.  It  giveth  to 
every  one — 'to  God,  to  home,  to  country,  to  Caesar,  to  the 
man  it  sways — all  that  belongs  to  each.  It  respects  every 
obligation  and  every  right.     The  man  who  withholds  theirs. 


PREFACE  13 

from  his  fellows  is  recreant  to  God  and  to  Caesar  and 
tears  into  shreds  self-respect,  without  which  there  is  naught 
left  but  degeneracy.  What  a  benefactor  of  his  race  is  the 
just  man!  His  thoughts  are  of  the  loftiest  and  gentlest, 
his  word  is  his  bond  and  baffles  bankruptcy;  his  deeds 
shine  like  stars  in  the  blackness  of  life's  wretchedness. — 
Rev.  P.  A.  Halpin,  New  Rochelle  College,  in  New  York 
Times,  April  24,  1910. 

"The  spirit  of  unrest  is  an  inarticulate  cry,  it  may  be, 
for  fair  play.  When  that  cry  becomes  articulate  and 
vociferous,  when  the  mighty  American  spirit  is  aroused, 
the  bulwarks  that  protect  special  privileges  and  selfish  in- 
terests will  be  battered  down  and  the  people  once  again 
will  come  into  their  own." — Dr.  Fetter,  at  Congregational 
Church  dinner,  Brooklyn, 

"  The  people  are  beginning  to  feel  that  these  questions 
are  moral  questions,  rather  than  economic.  The  next  great 
task  for  the  Christian  Church  to  undertake  is  to  plead  the 
cause  of  the  poor  and  the  weak  against  special  privilege 
and  legislation  in  the  interest  of  favorites.  There  can  be 
no  political  and  social  equality  so  long  as  there  is  indus- 
trial inequality  through  class  legislation.  There  is  but  one 
solution  of  the  social  problem  in  the  republic — that  is,  the 
application  of  the  Golden  Rule  to  the  laws  of  the  street." — 
Dr.  Hillis  at  Congregational  Church  dinner,  Brooklyn. 

Wherever  an  injustice  is  done,  evil  will  result.  A  great 
injustice  is  done  the  women  teachers  in  our  present  salary 
schedules,  and  it  is  being  perpetrated  by  the  very  depart- 
ment from  which  citizens  have  a  right  to  expect  the  high- 
est ideals  of  justice  and  morality. 

The  statutes  of  the  State  of  New  York  may  be  read 
from  beginning  to  end  and  there  will  be  found  no  statute 
which  deliberately  places  woman's  service  in  a  lower  wage 
scale  than  man's,  except  Section  1091  of  the  charter  of  the 
City  of  New  York — the  "  Davis  Law." 

The  cause  of  Equal  Pay  has  attracted  widespread  at- 
tention and  support.  When  the  women  teachers  of  New 
York  City  made  their  first  organized  protest  they  addressed 
themselves  to  the  local  authorities  but  were  accorded  such 


14  PREFACE 

contemptuous  treatment  that  they  found  it  necessary  to  ap- 
peal to  the  Legislature  for  a  statute  reading"  the  principle 
into  the  charter.  Equal  Pay  thus  became  immediately  a 
question  of  widespread  importance,  and  soon  attained  the 
proportions,  the  dignity  and  the  momentum  of  a  great  so- 
cial movement.  The  principle  of  Equal  Pay  is  representa- 
tive of  the  candid  judgment  of  more  than  half  the  popula- 
tion, who  are  opposed  to  the  present  system  as  being  a 
fundamental  negation  of  their  sense  of  fair  play.  They 
realize  that  long  toleration  and  tacit  acceptance  of  an  in- 
justice but  increase  their  obligation  to  destroy  it.  The 
movement  is  gaining  strength  and  ground  every  day. 

The  friends  of  Equal  Pay  insist  that  a  more  formal  and 
specific  statement  of  the  inception,  progress  and  prospects 
of  the  work  should  be  made  and  it  is  because  of  their  in- 
sistence that  this  book  is  written.  Equal  Pay  has  won 
support  wherever  its  arguments  have  been  fairly  presented. 
I  believe  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  it  will  revolt  the 
intelligence  of  everybody  whose  opinion  is  of  any  conse- 
quence to  argue  that  there  is  any  excuse  for  paying  a 
woman  less  for  the  same  work  than  is  paid  a  man,  whether 
that  work  be  in  a  so-called  profession  or  in  the  mechanical 
arts  and  trades. 

I  shall  have  utterly  failed  in  my  purpose  if  those  who 
read  this  book  do  not  realize  that  this  struggle  for  "  Equal 
Pay  "  is  a  fight  for  simple  justice. 

All  intelligent  people  must  acknowledge  that  injustice  is 
immoral.  All  must  agree  that  to  practice  or  uphold  in- 
justice is  dangerous  to  the  individual,  the  corporation,  the 
municipality,  the  State,  the  Nation. 

It  is  the  desire  to  assist  in  purging  the  profession,  the 
city,  the  State,  the  Nation,  to  which  I  belong,  of  the  great 
moral  danger  involved  in  the  unjust  practice  of  paying  for 
service  according  to  the  sex  of  the  servant,  that  has  made 
me  lead  the  fight  of  the  women  teachers. 

I  offer  this  book  in  the  same  spirit. 

GRACE  C.  STRACHAN. 


Miss  Maby  A.    Curtis, 
The   Bronx. 


Miss  Anna  E.   McAuliffe, 
Queens. 


Miss   Anxie    B.    Mokiarty, 

Brooklyn. 

Chairman  Organization   Committee. 


Miss  Lina  E.  Gans, 
Manhattan. 


Miss  Clara  I.  Walson. 
Richmond. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS,    INTERBORO    ASSOCIATION    OF    WOMEN 
TEACHERS,    NEW   YORK  CITY. 


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ORGANIZATION 

OF 

The   Interborough  Association   of   Women   Teachers 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  National  Educational  As- 
sociation for  the  year  1908,  Prof.  Ulysses  G.  Weatherby, 
University  of  Indianapolis,  says  that  the  "  lower  pay  of 
women  than  that  of  men  for  equal  work  is  due  entirely  to 
the  lack  of  serious  professional  spirit  and  organization." 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  is 
the  largest,  most  powerful,  single  organization  of  profes- 
sional women  in  the  world. 

Early  in  1907,  the  Journal  said  editorially :  "  In  the  In- 
terborough Association  of  Women  Teachers,  the  women 
of  the  public  school  system  of  Greater  New  York  have  de- 
veloped an  organization  of  ten  thousand  members,  which 
is  pledged  and  committed  to  the  principle  that  the  position 
should  carry  the  salary  in  the  school  service.  The  in- 
justices of  the  present  salary  schedules  have  been  felt  for 
years  by  these  ten  thousand  women ;  but  until  the  present 
organization  was  effected  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  act 
as  a  unit.  To-day  the  strength,  energy  and  intelligence 
of  every  individual  member  are  being  utilized  to  a  given 
end.  Unity  of  action  has  been  established,  and  the  result 
is  a  campaign  that  has  astonished  the  community  and 
roused  public  conscience.  The  tremendous  energy  and  de- 
votion of  these  women  and  their  thousands  of  friends  have 
also  created  a  moral  force  and  an  intelligent  power  that  is 
to  be  recognized  and  that  must  be  reckoned  with  by  civic 
organizations,  politicians  and  political  parties." 

There  are  various  stories  as  to  who  was  the  first  one  to 
suggest  that  the  women  teachers  should  organize  to  secure 
"  Equal   Pay."    All   agree,   however,   that  the  credit   of 

Z5 


i6  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

starting  the  organization  is  due  to  Miss  Kate  Hogan,  a 
teacher  of  a  seventh  year  class  of  boys  in  a  Manhattan 
school.  Miss  Hogan  was  elected  first  President,  Miss 
Anne  Goessling,  Vice-President,  Miss  Isabel  A.  Ennis, 
Secretary,  and  Miss  Fannie  I.  Flanly,  Treasurer.  The 
latter  was  soon  obliged  to  resign  on  account  of  death  in 
her  family,  and  Mrs.  N.  Curtis  Lenihen  was  chosen  to 
succeed  her. 

I  attended  the  first  meeting  of  the  association  in  April, 
1906,  simply  to  show  my  sympathy  with  the  movement. 
Learning  that  I  was  eligible  for  membership,  I  paid  the 
fifty  cents  dues,  and  I  have  never  missed  a  meeting  since, 
except  on  account  of  death  or  official  business.  In  May, 
1906,  at  Miss  Hogan's  request,  I  accepted  the  chairman- 
ship of  the  Executive  Committee. 

In  November,  the  Association  was  shocked  and  saddened 
by  the  death  of  Miss  Hogan.  As  the  constitution  made  no 
provision  for  filling  a  vacancy  caused  by  death,  a  special 
election  was  held  at  which  Mrs.  Lenihen  was  elected  pres- 
ident, and  Miss  Ellen  T.  O'Brien,  treasurer. 

In  1907  the  constitution  was  amended  so  as  to  provide 
for  a  vice-president  for  each  borough.  Miss  Alida  S.  Wil- 
liams was  elected  for  Manhattan,  but  illness  soon  compelled 
her  resignation,  and  she  was  succeeded  by  Miss  Lina  E. 
Gano,  who  has  been  unanimously  re-elected  every  year 
since.  Mrs.  Annie  B.  Moriarty  has  always  been  the  vice- 
president  from  Brooklyn.  Miss  Emma  McCabe  and  Miss 
Mary  A.  Curtis  have  represented  The  Bronx;  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth A.  Loughlin  and  Miss  Annie  E.  McAuliffe,  Queens; 
and  Miss  Rebecca  Ludlum  followed  by  Miss  Clara  I.  Wat- 
son, Richmond. 

Mrs.  Lenihen  was  re-nominated  for  the  presidency,  but 
ill  health  caused  her  to  withdraw,  and  I  was  elected  presi- 
dent in  October,  1907.  Mrs.  Lenihen  (now  Mrs.  Killeen) 
was  made  Honorary  President.  Miss  Ennis  is  the  only 
one  of  the  original  officers  still  serving. 

In  1907,  an  Organization  Committee  was  founded  with 
Mrs.  Moriarty  as  chairman.     Most  effective  work  has  been 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK  17 

done  by  and  through  this  committee.  The  vice-president 
of  each  borough  is  vice  chairman  for  that  borough,  and  is 
responsible  for  its  organization.  She  must  see  that  each 
Senate  and  each  Assembly  district  has  a  competent  and 
enthusiastic  leader,  and  each  school  Dne  or  more  delegates. 
Th€  leaders  and  delegates  of  each  district  are  expected  to 
familiarize  themselves  with  the  boundaries  of  the  district, 
the  names  of  its  representatives  in  the  Legislature  and  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  and  their  attitude  on  "Equal  Pay." 

The  association  has  grown  from  less  than  a  hundred  in 
April,  1906,  to  upwards  of  14,000  to-day.  Splendid  work 
was  done  by  Miss  Ennis  as  secretary  and  Mrs.  Lenihen  as 
treasurer  in  rolling  up  the  membership  in  the  early  days. 
Later,  the  Organization  Committee  workers  carried  it  on. 

Yeoman  service  has  been  rendered  by  all  those  named 
above  from  the  beginning,  but  the  brunt  of  the  battle  fell 
on  Mrs.  Lenihen,  Miss  Ennis,  Miss  O'Brien,  Mrs.  Mor- 
iarty  and  Miss  Gano.  I  take  this  opportunity  of  telling 
all  the  members  how  much  I  appreciate  their  splendid 
united  spirit  and  unselfish  cooperation.  The  loyalty  of 
the  "  primary  teachers "  is  especially  acknowledged  be- 
cause of  the  continuous  attempts  of  our  opponents  to 
weaken  or  destroy  it. 

While  the  Interborough  Association,  in  its  fight  has  had 
a  difficult  task  and  some  set-backs,  it  has  never  been  de- 
feated.   Why?    The  leaders  have  never  lost  faith. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  the  Beloved,  puts  it  this  way: 

To  feel  in  the  ink  of  the  slough 

And   the    sink   of  the   mire 

Veins    of    glory   and   fire 

Run  through  and  transpierce  and  transpire, 

And  a  secret  purpose  of  glory  fill  each  part. 

And  the  answering  glory  of  battle  fill  my  heart; 

To  thrill   with  joy  of  girded  men, 

To  go  on  forever  and  fail,  and  go  on  again. 

And  be   mauled  to   the   earth   and   arise. 

And  contend  for  the  shade  of  a  word  and  a  thing  not 

seen  with  the  eyes, 
With  the  half  of  a  broken  hope  for  a  pillow  at  night— 
That  somehow  the  right  is  the  right, 
And  the  smooth  shall  bloom  from  the  rough. 


i8 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 


HONORARY    VICE-PRESIDENTS 


Justice   William    Crane. 
Justice  Dittenhoefer. 
Justice    Stephen    Stephens. 
Justice  Vernon  Davis. 
Justice  J.  W.  Gerard. 
Justice  M.  L.  Erlanger. 
Justice  C.  H.  Truax. 
Justice  E  F.  O'Dwyer 
Judge  George  J.   (^Keefe. 
Ex-Justice  Edward  H.  Hatch. 
Justice  Robert  J.  Wilkin. 
Judge  Frank  O'Reilly. 
Judge  J.  G.  Tighe. 
Judge  Niorgan  M.  L.  Ryan. 
Monsignor   Lavelle. 
Monsignor    Edward    McCarty. 
Monsignor  J.    I.   Barrett. 
Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise. 
Rev.    Charles    Cassidy. 
Rev,    Joseph     H.     McMahon, 

D.  D. 
Rev.  Percy  S.  GranL 
Rev.  C.  R.  Duryee. 
Mons.  J.  T.  Woods. 
Lieutenant-Governor   White. 
Hon,  John  H.  McCooey. 
Hon.  William  H.  Edwards. 
Sen,  Thomas  F.  Grady. 
Hon.  James  E.  March. 
Cong.  William  Sulzer. 
Cong.  Otto  G.  Foelker. 
Hon.  Julius  Harburger. 
Hon.    Charles    McCormack. 
Hon.  John  B.  Byrne. 
Hon.  John  J.  Cronin,  M.  D. 
Aid.  George  Markert 
Walter  T.   Edgerton. 
Hon.   Timothy   L.   WoodruflF. 
Hon.   Patrick  F.  McGowan, 
Hon.  William  Lcary. 
Hon.  Charles  F.  Murphy. 
Hon.   Robert   Hebberd. 
Hon.  Walter  Bensel,  M.  D. 
Hon.  Robert  H.  Elder. 
Hon.  John  S.  Shea. 
Hon.  Arthur  Murphy. 
Hon.   Patrick  Hayes. 
Hon.   William   F.    Sheehan. 
J.  Hampden  Dougherty. 


Anna  B.  Allan. 

Miss   Helen   Varick   BoswelL 

Mrs.  Lillie  Devereux  Blake. 

Beatrice  Fairfax. 

Mrs.   J.    Borden    Harriman. 

Mrs.  Carrie  Chapman  Catt. 

Mrs.  James  W.  Gerard. 

Mrs.  Martin  W.  Littleton. 

Dorothy   Dix. 

Mrs.   Harriet    Stanton   BlatcK 

Mrs.   Gilbert   E   Jones. 

Mrs.  Charles  H.  Hyde. 

Mrs.   William   A.   Engemann. 

Mrs.  Forbes  Robertson. 

Miss  Mary  Drier. 

Mrs.   Cynthia  Westover 

Alden. 
Mrs.  E.  W.  Townsend. 
Dr.  Anna  Shaw. 
Miss  Ida  Craft. 
Mrs.  Harry  Hastings. 
Mrs.  Thomas  J.  Vivian. 
Miss   Margaret  Lavelle. 
Miss    Margfaret    Schlessinger. 
Mrs,  Frederick  Nathan. 
Dr.    Adelaide   Wallerstein. 
Mrs.   Earl   S.   King. 
Mrs.  William  H.   Hotchkin. 
Mrs.  Helen   Hoy  Greeley. 
Mrs.  James  Lees  Laidlaw. 
Miss  Anne  Morgan. 
Lewis  Nixon. 
Caesare  Conti. 
Major   Edward   R.   Gilman. 
Qement   B.  Asbury. 
John  J.  Harrington. 
Antonio   Zucca. 
Harold    B.    Christensen. 
Theodore   Sutro. 
Henry  Batterman. 
Nathaniel  H.  hevi. 
George    G.    DeBevoise. 
S.  T,  Hollister. 
Cyrus    Frederick    Leubuscher. 
George   R.   Crowly. 
Howard  Marshall. 
C.  V.  Gould  fjames  Mc- 

Creery  &   Co.) 
Alexander   Delia   Paoli. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 


19 


Hon.   Mirab^au  L.   Towns. 
Charles   H.   Strong. 
George  Foster  Peabody. 
Isaac  H.  Russell. 
George  W.  Titcomb. 
John  Francis  Yawger. 
Hon.  Robert  H.  Roy. 
John   Lorenz  Cronin. 
A.  F.  Lauterbach. 
Col.   Alexander   S.    Bacon- 
Eugene  Lamb  Richards. 
Charles  F.   Kingsley. 
Edward   McCrossin. 
Charles  V.   Nellany. 
Hon.  James  A.  Donnelly. 
Hon.   Henry  N.   TiflFt 
Hon.    Joseph    W.    Keller. 
George   B.   Hanavan. 
Benjamin   Blumenthal. 
James   Edward  Gravilly. 
Mrs.  William  J.  Gaynor. 
Mrs.  Charlotte  B.  Wilbour. 
Mrs.  William  Gumming 

Story. 
Mrs.   Mirabeau  L.  Towns. 
Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 
Mrs.  O.  H.  P.  Belmont 
Ida  Husted  Harper. 
Mrs.  Belle  de  Rivera. 
Mrs.  Charlotte  Iranni. 
Mrs.  Egerton  L.  Winthrop, 

Jr. 
Mrs.  Edward  Lauterbach. 
Mrs.  William  M.  Ivins. 
Mrs.  James  Griswold  Wentz. 
Miss  Margaret  Grady. 
Mrs.  Cora  Welles  Trow. 
Mrs.  John  S.  Crosby. 
Mrs.  John  Francis  Yawger. 
Mme.    Katharine    von    Klem- 

mer. 
Dr.   Frances    Squire    Potter. 
Mrs.    Alma    Webster    PowelL 
Miss  Eliza  Macdonald. 


Frederick  Nathan. 

Alfred  B.  Hall. 

John  W.  Sawyer. 

William   S.  Germain. 

George  P.  Eckman. 

Ezra  W.  Sampson. 

W.  A.  Duke. 

John    Wanamaker. 

William  H.  McAdoo. 

Samuel   Strauss. 

John  A.  Wilbur. 

Benjamin   BlumenthaL 

Edward  F.   Linton. 

H.  W.   Lyall. 

M.   Peter  Benedict 

Col.  Alexander  S.  Bacon. 

Henry  Siegel. 

John  C.  Sheehan. 

George  C.  Boldt 

John    C.   Judge,   Attorney. 

D.  T.  Cornell. 

R   W.   Townsend. 

Gu}'  Loring  Smith. 

Edgar   Smith. 

Browne    C.    Hammond. 

L.  J.  Fagan. 

James  P.  Quinn. 

James   R    March. 

Charles  J.  Adams. 

Alfred   I.    Kirkup. 

Andreas    DippeL 

John    Temple    Graves. 

Edwin   Markham. 

Theodore  Dreiser. 

Carl  E  Dufft. 

William  Dean  Howells. 

Ellis  Parker  Butler. 

George  W.  Blake. 

Ossian   Lang. 

Thomas    J.    Cunningham. 

James    C.    Monaghan. 

George    Henrj-    Pa>-nc. 

Major   E.    T.    McCrystal 

(Irish    American.) 
Alfred  L.   Manniere. 


Rev.  James  Alyward. 
Rev.  James  Bums. 


MINISTERS 


Rev.  William  A.  Ring. 
Rev.    Paul   Reichertz. 
Rev.  J.  J.  Slattery. 


20 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


Rev.   John   Braum. 
Rev.   Henry  A.   Braum. 
Rev.   Fred    W.    Blakesli. 
Rev.  William  Blakes. 

Rev.  F.   J.    Castellano. 

Rev.  I.   J.    Conlon. 

Rev.  R.    A.    Cahill. 

Rev.  P.   H.    Casey. 

Rev.  John    P.    Chidwick. 

Rev.  James   Lyon   Caughey. 

Rev.  John  C.  Campbell. 

Rev.    William    V.    Dunwell. 
Rev.   John   H.   Dooley. 
Rev.   George   F.   Dean. 
Rev.   John   Dolan. 
Rev.  Thomas  Daly. 
Rev.    Joseph    Donohue. 
Rev.   J.   J.   Durkin. 
Rev.    James    Donlon. 
Rev.  Thomas  F.  Ducui. 
Rev.   J.    Dunn. 

Rev.  Luke  Evers. 

Rev.  James  T.   Fitzimmon. 

Rev.  James  J.  Flood. 

Rev.    Henry    A.    Fitzgerald. 

Rev.   Charles   H.  Grubb. 
Rev.   M.   W.   Gilbert. 
Rev.  J.   C.   Grimmell. 
Rev.    Walter    A.    Gardner. 
Rev.    Percy    S.   Grant. 
Rev.    C.    F.    Gnntner. 
Rev.    Anthony    J.    Grogan. 
Rev.    D.    W.    Gill. 
Rev.   B.    F.    Galligan. 
Rev  Thomas   F.  Gregg. 
Rev.  C.  L.  Goddell. 

Rev.  R.  Haepflin. 
Rev.    Nicholas    J.   Hughes. 
Rev.  J.   H.   Hinch. 
Rev.   M.   J.   Henry. 
Rev.    George   Houghton. 
Rev.  Dr.   Hutchins. 
Rev.  Jeremiah  Heafy. 
Rev.  E.   S.  Hollaway. 
Rev.  John  P.  Hughes. 

Rev.  F.  H.  Justa. 


Rev.  J.  M.  Stanton. 
Rev.  M.  A.  Sheehan. 
Rev.   Samuel  Schulman. 
Rev.   Talbot  John   Smith. 
Dr.  William  Stinson. 
Dr.  George  M.  Searle. 
Rev.   Edwin  Sweeney. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Scott. 
Rev.  H.  T.   Scutter. 

Rev.  M.   Trathen. 
Rev.  Mathew  A.  Taylor. 
Rev.  T.  D.  Tempane. 
Rev.  S.  W.  Tumms. 

Rev.  George  Van  De  Water. 
Rev.  W.  H.  Vaughn. 
Rev.  T.  D.  Van  Wilderberg. 
Rabbi  Faulk  Vidaver. 
Rev.  Michele  De  Vincent. 

Rev.  Drew  T.  Wyman. 

Rev.  J.  A.  Walther. 

Rev.  D.  D.  Whittier. 

George  Blake. 

John  C.  Freund. 

Reuben  L.  Gledhill. 

James  A.  Foley. 

Alfred  E.  Zass. 

William  J.  Bolger. 

Rev.  W.  W.  Barringer. 

Henry  E.  Chapman. 

Thomas  Freel. 

Rev.   Alexander  Irvine. 

Ezra  Tuttle  A. 

Lawrence  Gresser. 

Miss  Lewison. 

Miss   Woerishaffer, 

Miss  -Mary  Dreier. 

Belle  De   Rivera. 

Mrs.  William  Cummings- Story. 

Miss   Charlotte  Wilbour. 

Mrs.   Harriet  Johnston  Wood. 

Mrs.  C.  W.  Fisk. 

Mrs.  Harry  Hastings. 

Mrs.  John   Francis  Yawger. 

Mrs.  Gilbert  Jones. 

Miss    Mary   Garrett   Hay. 

Mrs.  George  B.  Reid. 

Miss  Florence  Guernsey. 

Mrs.  John  Zimmerman. 

Mrs.  Root  Francis  Cartwright. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Lawrence. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 


21 


Rev  Alva  E.  Knapp. 

Rev.    William    E.    Katzenber- 

ger. 
Rev.  John  J.  Keoghan. 
Rev.  John  J.   Kellehan. 
Rev.  John  J.  Knowles. 
Very  Rev.   Canon  Knowles. 

Rev.  J.  D.  Long. 
Rev.   David  Leahy. 
Rev.    L.    J.    LockingeJ:. 
Rev.   J.   A.   Lyons. 
Rev.    William    Livingston. 

Rev.  C.  B.  Lutz. 

Rev.  Thomas  F.  McMillen. 

Rev.  C.  H.  McGrath. 

Rev.  A.  H.  C.  Moorse. 

Rev.  J.  S.  Moran. 

Rev.  J.  F.  Molloi. 

Rev.  P.  E.  McCorry. 

Rev.   John   McQuirk. 

Rev.  William  H.  Murphy. 

Rev.  P.  J.  Minogue. 

Rev.  P.  H.  Maher. 

Rev.  John  J.  McCahill. 

Rt.  Rev.  Charles  McCreedy. 

Rev.  Charles  McKenna. 

Rt.  Rev.  James  H.  McGean. 

Rt  Rev.  D.  McMillan. 

Rev.   Matin  A.   Meyer. 

Rev.   Edw.   McGuffey. 

Rev.  John  O'Donovan. 
Rev.  J.  F.  X.  O'Connor. 
Rev.  Daniel  O'Dwyer. 
Rev.  J.  F.  O'Gorman. 

Rev.  John  P.  Peters. 
Rev.   Charles  H.   ParkHurst. 
Rev.  John  F.  Patty. 
Rev.  William  L.  Penny. 
Rev.  James  W.  Power. 
Rev.  S.  Parin. 
Rev.  M.  J.  Phelan. 
Rev.  George  S.  Pratt 
Rev.  Lindsay  Parker. 
Rev.  John  H.  Pastoret 

Rev.  Charles  T.  Ritter. 
Rtv.  L.  Rabe. 


Hon.  James  B.  McEwen. 

Major  McCrystal. 

Miss  Lillie  Devereaux  Blake. 

John  Meehan. 

Senator  Stillwell. 

John  Henry  Payne. 

Rev.    William    Parkhurst 

Joseph  Hyman. 

John  Randolph. 

Charles  F.  Kingsley. 

Dr.  N.  J.  Coyne. 

Jacob  Mariner. 

Isaac  Alden. 

Saul  C.  Lavine. 

Mr.  F.  Pitelli. 

Robert  H.  Elder. 

Judge  H.  Hylan. 

J.  Diner. 

John  Temple  Graves. 

Justus   Ralph. 

William  A.  Cokely. 

Thomas   Mulry. 

Thomas  I.   Curtis. 

M.  McConville. 

A,  B.  McStay. 
James  P.  Holland- 

B.  Hannah. 
Clement  B.   Asbury. 
Richard   Webber. 
Nathaniel  H.   Levi. 
Alfred  L  Kirkus. 
Dr.   Robert  F.   Ives. 
Dr.  J.  Edward  Herman. 
Rev.  Robert  N.  Merriman. 
Rev.  George  C.  Groves. 
Mrs.  August  Beyer. 
George  Millard. 

George  De  Be  Voise. 

Charles  Adams. 

Charles    HoUister. 

John  Whalen. 

Terence   P.    Smith. 

Edward  Moloughuey. 

Harold   Dudley  Greeley. 

George  F.  Elliot. 

Judge  Morgan  J.  O'Brien. 

Eugene   Philbin. 

Martin  W.  Littleton. 

Frederick  Nathan. 

Rev.  John  Donaldson. 

William  Sulzer. 


Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work 


CHAPTER    I 
FOREWORD 

Rabbi  Wise  pointed  out  in  his  speech  at  our  mass  meet- 
ing on  March  6,  1908,  that  our  subject  lacks  the  one  merit 
of  being  new,  for  as  early  as  1871,  Wendell  Phillips  of- 
fered the  following"  resolution  at  a  meeting  at  Worcester: 
"  We  demand,  that  whenever  women  are  employed  at  pub- 
lic expense  to  do  the  same  kind  and  amount  of  work  as 
men  perform,  they  shall  receive  the  same  wages." 

But  the  subject  is  older  than  that,  for  on  July  29,  1862, 
the  question  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work  by  teachers  came 
up  at  the  session  of  the  New  York  Teachers'  Association. 
The  committee  to  which  it  had  been  referred  reported 
against  giving  equal  salaries  to  men  and  women  teachers, 
although  it  was  said  that  the  salaries  of  women  teachers 
should  be  larger.  Miss  Anthony  (Susan  B.)  offered  as  a 
substitute  for  the  'committee's  resolution  another  to  the  ef- 
fect that  "  justice  requires  that  the  amount  of  compensa- 
tion should  not  be  regulated  by  sex,  but  by  the  amount  of 
service  rendered."  After  a  sharp  discussion,  the  previous 
question  was  ordered  and  the  Anthony  resolution  was 
voted  down. 

Section  1091  of  our  city  charter,  familiarly  known  as 
the  Davis  Law,  sets  forth  the  only  logical  consideration 
which  should  govern  the  iixing  and  regulating  of  salaries 
of  teachers,  in  the  words,  "  and  the  salaries  of  all  princi- 
pals and  teachers  shall  be  regulated  by  merit,  grade  of 
clasa  taught,  length  of  service,  experience  in  teaching  or 
by  a  combination  of  these  considerations  " ;  but  this  is  im- 
mediately negatived  by  the  next  sentence  in  which  a  new 
consideration,  that  of  sex,  is  given  an  insulting  and,  to  the 
women  teachers,  degrading  prominence,  in  that  it  is  made 

23 


24     EQUAL  'PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

the  basis  for  dividing  tHe  salary  schedule  for  the  same 
grade  and  class  of  work  into  two  unfair  and  inequitable 
listSo 

Horace  E.  Deming  at  one  of  our  mass  meetings  said: 
**It  needs  no  argument  to  convince  any  sane  and  reason- 
able person  that  a  man  or  a  woman,  a  city  or  a  state,  a 
(Corporation  or  an  individual — ^any  employer — that  pays  A 
a  different  price  from  B  for  doing  the  same  work,  is  guilty 
of  a  mean  act.  Now,  there  is  something  inexpressibly 
mean  in  according  treatment  to  a  woman  which  one  would 
not  even  contemplate  in  the  case  of  a  man.  If  the  salar- 
ies of  men  teachers  are  too  high,  reduce  them  to  the  same 
figure  as  that  paid  to  the  women  teachers.  If  the  women 
are  receiving  too  little  pay,  raise  it  to  that  of  the  men 
teachers.  If  neither  is  being  justly  paid,  find  a  fair  and 
equitable  salary,  but  under  all  circumstances  pay  the  same 
price  for  the  same  work,  irrespective  of  the  sex  of  the 
•worker." 

When  one  considers  that  this  is  the  twentieth  century 
and  that  the  struggle  set  forth  in  these  pages  is  being 
fought  by  women,  by  women  in  America,  by  women  of 
the  greatest  city  in  America,  one  is  forced  to  doubt  the 
much  vaunted  superiority  of  American  men  in  their  deal- 
ings with  their  women. 

Yet  we  have  been  fighting  for  years  to  get  simple  jus- 
tice for  some  of  our  women.  "  But,"  you  say,  "  maybe 
these  women  are  unworthy."  Worthy  or  unworthy,  they 
the  entitled  to  justice;  but  it  happens  they  are  amongst 
our  most  worthy  citizens.  I  believe  that  if  the  Mayor  were 
asked  to  tell  which  of  the  city's  servants  he  could  spare 
least  for  all  time,  he  would  say  the  women  teachers. 

Is  it  not  hard  then  to  believe  that  four  years  have 
passed  since  we  pointed  out  the  injustice  under  which  we 
are  laboring,  and  that  15,000  of  us  are  still  appealing  to 
the  properly  constituted  authorities  for  relief.  And  yet 
we  are  not  discouraged.  We  believe  that  the  great  major- 
ity of  the  citizens  and  taxpayers — fathers  and  mothers, 
brothers  and  sisters,  of  the  700,000  pupils  in  our  public 
schools— will  support  and  strengthen  our  appeal  to  our 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  2$ 

Board  of  Education,  our  Board  of  Estimate  and  Appor- 
tionment, and — if  need  be — to  "Albany." 

And  what  is  this  appeal  of  ours? 

Simply  that  our  salary  schedules  be  Civil  Service  sched- 
ules: that  there  be  but  one  salary  for  one  and  the  same 
position  whose  incumbent  is  selected  from  an  eligible  list 
after  competitive  examination — in  more  familiar  terms, 
"  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work." 

Nor  is  this  some  wonderful,  new  idea  of  'the  women 
teachers. 

The  State  as  an  employer  pays  but  one  salary  for  one 
and  the  same  position. 

The  City  as  an  employer  pays  but  one  salary  for  one 
and  the  same  position. 

The  Board  of  Education  as  an  employer  pays  but  one 
salary  for  one  and  the  same  position  under  most  of  its 
schedules. 

1.  Vacation  Schools.     Principals  and  teachers. 

2.  Evening  Schools.     Principals  and  teachers. 

3.  Principals  High  Schools. 

4.  District  Superintendents. 

5.  Assistant  Directors  of  Special  Subjects. 

6.  Model  teachers,  Training  School  for  Teachers. 

7.  Principal  of  Model  School. 

8.  Principal  of  Training  School  for  Teachers. 

9.  Evening  Recreation  Centers.     Principals  and  teach- 
ers. 

10.  Vacation  Play  Grounds.     Principals  and  teachers. 

11.  City  Superintendent. 

12.  Associate  City  Superintendent. 

13.  Board  of  Examiners. 

GENERAL  OUTLINE 

"Certainly,  have  the  women,  but  not  because  they  are 
cheaper.  If  women  are  put  in  the  subway  ticket  offices, 
they  must  have  equal  pay  with  the  men." 

Mr.  William  G.  McAdoo,  President  of  the  Hudson  River 
Tunnels,  spoke  as  above  when  his  general  superintendent 


26  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

suggested  the  employment  of  women  as  ticket  sellers  on 
the  ground  that  besides  being  more  expert  than  men,  they 
would  be  cheaper  also. 

When  later  questioned  by  a  reporter,  Mr.  McAdoo  said 
among  other  things : 

"  I  am  not  a  champion  for  the  great  suffrage  cause,  but 
when  Mr.  Munger  told  me  that  women  as  ticket  sellers 
were  more  nimble-fingered,  more  expert  than  men,  I  told 
him  to  take  them  on  at  full  pay.  The  day  is  here  when 
it  is  a  necessity  for  large  numbers  of  women  to  be  em- 
ployed outside  the  home,  and  it  is  only  fair  that  there 
should  be  no  discrimination  in  the  matter  of  pay.  Work  is 
work,  no  matter  who  accomplishes  it,  and  if  women  can 
do  as  well  as  men,  they  should  have  the  same  money." 

Thus  are  the  chains  that  have  hampered  women  through 
all  the  centuries  being  broken  by  force  of  light.  Forged 
by  brute  strength,  pride,  prejudice  and  passion,  they  are 
disappearing  of  their  own  rottenness.  Mankind  is  real- 
izing and  is  acknowledging  that  the  parts  played  by  the 
mother,  the  wife,  and  the  sister  in  the  game  of  life  are 
often  as  important  as  those  played  by  the  father,  the  hus- 
band and  the  brother.  In  the  world  of  work,  it  was  so 
long  taken  for  granted  that  the  woman  of  the  family  should 
work  "  from  sun  to  sun  "  in  the  dairy,  the  kitchen,  the 
nursery,  the  field,  the  sewing-room,  and  at  the  spinning 
wheel,  without  pecuniary  reward  that  when  she  appeared 
to  work  side  by  side  with  men  in  the  public  labor  market, 
it  was  natural  that  any  wages  greater  than  nothing  seemed 
munificent  reward  for  her  services.  The  woman,  used  to 
being  treated  as  a  slave  or  a  plaything,  accepted  her 
smaller  wage  without  murmur.  But  Progress  never  really 
stops  on  her  upward  path,  though  she  sometimes  seems  to 
lose  her  way,  and  within  the  last  decade  or  two  vast  strides 
have  been  made  in  the  movements  to  better  the  conditions 
surrounding  women  who  must  work  in  the  public  mart. 
Thinking  men  realize  that  their  own  protection  as  labor 
units  demands  the  removal  of  conditions  which  make  them 
compete  with  cheap  labor.  That  this  competition  is  a  men- 
ace to  the  men  is  shown  over  and  over  again  in  the  appor- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK  27 

tionmeiit  of  our  teachers.  Recently  200  women  and  only, 
three  men  were  appointed  from  the  License  No.  i  list.  When 
the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Elementary  Schools 
was  appealed  to  by  the  men  for  an  explanation  as  to  why 
more  men  were  not  appointed,  he  said  in  effect  it  was  be- 
cause women  are  cheaper. 

"  Work  is  work,  no  matter  who  accomplishes  it,  and  if 
women  can  do  as  well  as  men  they  should  have  the  same 
pay." 

Mr.  McAdoo  has  in  these  words  voiced  the  slogan  of 
the  women  teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York  in  their  fight 
for  a  revision  of  the  salary  schedules.  When  the  Mayor, 
the  members  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  of  this  great 
city  hold  the  same  just  view  of  work  and  pay  as  does  Mr. 
McAdoo,  then  indeed  will  the  women  teachers'  fight  be 
won. 

"  But,"  say  the  opponents  of  the  women  teachers,  "  it 
is  not  justice,  but  more  money  the  women  want."  And 
apparently  we  have  found  it  impossible  to  change  this  view 
in  the  minds  of  the  male  teachers  and  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  Education  that  oppose  us.  Yet  when  the  Inter- 
borough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  submitted  to  its 
members  the  question :  Would  you  support  a  bill  *  providing 
an  increase  of  40  per  cent  in  your  salary  hut  not  embody- 
ing the  principle  of  "Equal  Pay,"  "No"  formed  99.4  per 
cent  of  all  the  answers  received. 

The  editor  of  the  New  York  Sun,  however,  has  shown 
that  he  understands  the  aim  of  women  teachers  in  their 
campaign,  in  the  following  editorial  on  "  The  Equal  Pay 
Veto"  published  May  15,  1909: 

"  Emphasis  is  laid  by  his  Honor  on  the  fact  that,  ac- 
cording to  certain  experts,  the  proposed  change  would  add 
$6,000,000  a  year  to  the  budget.     But,  in  spite  of  the  other 

*  Such  a  bill  was  introduced  in  1907  by  Assemblyman  Francis 
(Rep.),  at  the  request  of  a  man  receiving  $2400,  as  assistant  to 
principal,  though  serving  as  principal  of  a  school  of  seven  classes, 
ranging  in  grade  from  Kindergarten  to  3B.  Needless  to  say,  the 
bill  provided  an  increase  for  him  also. 


28  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

fact  that  this  side  of  the  question  was  aired  at  the  hearing, 
and  on  other  occasions,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  a  very  weak 
argument.  '  Give  us  justice.  That  is  all  we  ask,'  say  the 
women.  *  Oh,  but  it  would  be  so  expensive,'  say  the  men. 
A  very  lame  and  ridiculous  rejoinder.  Besides,  sordid  as 
the  defense  is,  it  would  be  more  conclusive  if  we  lived  in 
a  city  and  state  in  which  strict  economy  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  things  earnestly  sought  after  by  persons  in  of- 
fice. 

"  Well,  the  ladies  don't  get  the  money,  not  just  yet. 
They  must  go  on  paying  a  tax  on  the  accident  of  birth. 
They  may  command  in  the  schoolroom,  but,  when  the  time 
for  remuneration  comes  around,  must  realize  that  in  this 
best  regulated  of  all  possible  worlds,  doublet  and  hose  is 
superior  to  petticoat. 

"  Now,  in  a  case  like  this,  the  main  thing  is  to  get  at- 
tention. The  women  court  inquiry,  investigation.  From 
the  beginning  their  appeal  has  been  to  the  record  of  the 
work  done.  The  mayor  announces  that  he  will  appoint  a 
Commission  to  investigate  the  whole  question  in  all  its  as- 
pects. It  is  safe  to  predict  this  will  cause  jubilation  in 
the  camp  of  the  women  and  gloom  among  the  men  in  the 
department. 

"  In  the  meantime,  the  opponents  of  the  measure  might 
cast  about  for  some  new  arguments,  for  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  they  will  be  needed  before  long." 

I  quote  the  above  because  it  expresses  the  facts  so  suc- 
cinctly. It  is  a  recognition  of  the  truth  that  not  only  jus- 
tice, but  all  arguments  worth  while  are  on  the  side  of  the 
women  teachers.  Ours  is  a  question  of  justice — ^not  of 
religion  or  prejudice  or  money.  Yet  there  are  many  who 
claim  that  the  opposition  in  some  instances  is  racial,  in 
others,  religious.  If  we  were  to  consider  such  criticism 
seriously,  we  would  need  to  imagine  ourselves  back  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  centuries  before  our  great  wars  of  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  Rebellion  had  been  fought  and  won,  instead 
of  right  here  in  the  imperial  city  of  imperial  America  in 
the  twentieth  century. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  29 

But  Mr.  McAdoo  and  the  editor  of  the  Sun  do  not  stand 
alone.  One  of  the  most  prominent  judges  in  the  United 
States,  Hon.  WilHam  J.  Gaynor  of  the  Appellate  Division 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  presided  at  a  mag- 
nificent mass  meeting  held  on  behalf  of  the  women  teach- 
ers and  spoke  earnestly  on  the  worthiness  of  their  cause. 
Other  judges  of  the  same  court,  Hon.  John  Woodward 
and  Hon.  Luke  D.  Stapleton,  presided  at  the  first  and  sec- 
ond annual  banquets  of  our  great  organization,  and  not 
only  honored  us  by  their  presence,  but  strengthened  our 
cause  by  their  splendid  addresses. 

It  would  be  a  herculean  task  to  name  all  the  prominent 
men  and  women  who  have  publicly  espoused  our  cause,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  noble  men 
and  women  who  are  ot  in  the  "prominent"  class,  but 
whose  encouragement  has  been  very  sweet,  and  whose  as- 
sistance has  been  very  valuable  to  us. 

The  remarkable  majorities  given  our  "  Equal  Pay  "  bills 
by  Senate  and  Assembly  of  1907,  1908,  and  1909,  have  been 
striking  evidence  of  the  strength  and  popularity  of  our 
cause.  Senator  Horace  White,  the  "  father "  of  the 
"  White  Bill  "  of  1907  and  of  1908,  became  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  1909.  Senator  Gledhill,  the  father  of  the 
"  1909 "  bill,  was  honored  by  appointment  to  a  place  on 
the  Legislative  Committee  authorized  to  report  on  the  pro- 
posed new  charter  for  this  city.  Senator  Thomas  F.  Grady 
has  never  missed  an  opportunity  of  supporting  our  cause. 
Our  first  bill  was  introduced  by  Senator  Patrick  H.  Mc- 
Carren  (Dem.).  This  bill  was  not  reported  out  by  the 
Cities'  Committee,  the  so-called  "  White  Bill  "  being  pre- 
pared and  reported  out  instead.  The  Assembly  bills  of 
1907  and  1908  were  both  fathered  by  Hon.  Robert  S.  Conk- 
lin  (Rep.),  that  of  1909  by  Hon.  James  A.  Foley  (Dem.). 
Both  Secretary  of  State  John  S.  Whalen  (Dem.  and  Ind.) 
and  Secretary  of  State  Samuel  S.  Koenig  (Rep.)  have 
rendered  us  valuable  aid.  Our  bitterest  opponents  in  Sen- 
ate and  Assembly,  Senator  Travis  and  Assemblyman  Lee, 
have  both  said  they  believed  in  "  Equal  Pay,"  but  have  op- 
posed our  bill  on  account  of  its  cost  in  dollars  and  cents. 


30  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

What  would  have  been  thought  of  the  colonist  of  1775 
who  said  he  believed  in  the  principle  of  "  Taxation  with- 
out Representation  "  but  objected  to  the  cost  in  pence  of 
the  tax  on  tea  ?  We  can  feel  respect  for  the  man  who  op- 
poses our  bill  because  he  is,  on  account  of  heredity,  en- 
vironment, mode  of  life,  or  some  disappointment  in  mother, 
sister,  wife  or  sweetheart,  still  of  the  opinion  that  a  woman 
even  when  she  does  a  piece  of  work  as  well  as  a  man, 
should  be  paid  less  than  a  man  simply  and  solely  because 
she  is  a  woman;  but  what  respect  can  one  have  for  him 
who  says  he  believes  a  request  is  just,  but  refuses  to  grant 
it  because  it  might  cost  each  taxpayer  one  cent  more  on 
every  thousand  cents  of  the  assessed  valuation  of  his  tax- 
able property?  Can  such  a  one  be  a  true  dtizen  of  the 
United  States? 

"  But,"  some  may  ask,  "  why  have  the  women  teachers 
of  the  city  of  New  York  carried  their  fight  to  Albany. 
Why  have  they  not  appealed  to  their  own  Board  of  Educa- 
tion? To  their  own  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportion- 
ment ?    To  their  own  Board  of  Aldermen  ?  " 

We  answer:  We  have  done  all  these  things.  We  or- 
ganized as  "  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers"  in  April,  1906,  and  at  once  formally  and  re- 
spectfully petitioned  our  Board  of  Education  to  revise  the 
salary  schedules  so  that  teachers  -occupying  the  same  posi- 
tion would  receive  the  same  pay.  Our  request  was  never 
acknowledged,  but  we  learned  through  the  minutes  of  a 
subsequent  meeting  of  the  board  that  the  Committee  on 
By-Laws  and  Legislation,  to  which  our  communication  had 
been  referred,  asked  "  to  be  excused  from  further  con- 
sideration of  the  matter." 

We  then  began  systematic  work  with  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  both  the  Board  of  Education  and  the  Board  of 
Estimate.  In  the  interviews  with  these  members,  we 
found  that  few,  if  any,  realized  the  enormity  of  the  dis- 
crimination against  women  teachers  in  the  present  salary 
schedules.  The  mayor,  George  B.  McClellan,  persistently 
refused  to  grant  an  interview  to  me  or  any  other  member 
or    any    committee    of    our    organization.     This    attitude 


Hon.    Patrick    H.    McCarren, 
Father  of  First  "Equal  Pay"  Bill  Ever  Introduced,   Feb.   6, 
1907.      Strong,   Faithful,  Steadfast  Friend  of  the   Women 
Teachers.     Died  October,  1909. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  31 

caused  us  much  chagrin,  disappointment,  and  sorrow; 
especially  as  we  knew  that  members  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, our  strongest  opponent,  had  access  to  his  presence 
and  his  attention.  We — in  our  simplicity,  shall  it  be 
said? — felt  that  he  was  our  mayor  as  much  as  he  theirs, 
even  though  we  were  women  and  they  were  men ;  for  are 
we  not  all  citizens  of  the  municipality  over  which  he  pre- 
sided? Yet  here  is  an  organization  comprising  over 
twelve  thousand  of  the  women  selected  to  be  educators 
of  the  city's  children,  denied  a  word  with  the  chief  execu- 
tive of  that  city,  either  as  mayor  or  as  President  of  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment. 

In  contrast  to  this  attitude  of  the  mayor,  the  Board  of 
Aldermen  had  each  year  of  our  fight  unanimously  adopted 
a  resolution  in  favor  of  the  women  teachers. 

In  the  fall  of  1906,  a  second  appeal  for  a  hearing  was 
sent  to  the  Board  -of  Education,  and  this  time  the  By-Law 
Committee  fixed  a  date  for  such  a  hearing.  Tzvo  of  the 
five  members  of  this  committee  and  no  other  of  the  forty- 
six  members  of  the  board  attended.  It  was  evident  that 
the  plea  of  the  women  teachers  fell  on  stony  ground. 

The  work  of  this  year  made  it  clear  to  the  women  teach- 
ers that  they  themselves  must  go  to  Albany,  the  state  cap- 
ital, and  seek  the  amendment  to  Section  1091  of  the  char- 
ter, which  would  eliminate  therefrom  the  words  "  male " 
and  "  female  "  and  cause  teachers  to  be  paid  according  to 
the  position  held  and  not  according*  to  their  sex.  Yet 
many  citizens  have  criticized  us  for  so  doing.  Person- 
ally, I  see  no  good  reason  why  the  women  teachers  should 
not  appeal  to  their  legislators  at  Albany  for  relief  from 
an  injustice  that  was  legalized  by  chapter  four  hundred 
and  sixty-six  of  the  laws  of  1900.  Governor  Hughes  in 
his  veto  message  on  our  bill  justified  such  appeal  in  these 
words:  "The  board  of  education  is  thus  directly  subject 
to  the  control  of  the  Legislature,  and  whatever  provisions 
may  be  found  necessary  or  wise  for  the  purpose  of  defin- 
ing its  powers  or  prescribing  its  policy,  must  be  prescribed 
by  the  Legislature.  No  other  authority  is  competent  to 
make  such  provision."    Therefore,  it  is  proven  that  while 


32  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

we  had  shown  courtesy  to  our  home  officials  in  applying 
to  them  for  relief,  we  might  as  reasonably  have  applied 
to  the  ice  man  for  a  ton  of  hay. 

The  campaign  of  1907  was  carried  on  mainly  at  Albany. 
The  "  Equal  Pay  "  bill  reported  out  by  the  Senate  Cities' 
Committee,  and  familiarly  known  as  the  "  White  Bill," 
passed  the  Senate  with  a  vote  of  45  to  i,  and  the  Assem- 
bly with  a  vote  of  105  to  15.  It  was  bitterly  opposed  by 
the  Board  of  Education  and  some  male  principals  and 
teachers.  We  expected  Mayor  McClellan  to  veto  it.  He 
did.  It  was  re-passed  by  the  Senate  and  Assembly  with 
votes  of  37  to  9  and  82  to  55  respectively.  We  did  not 
expect  Governor  Hughes'  veto,  because  we  believed  him  to 
be  a  lover  of  justice  and  thought  he  would  see  that  justice 
demanded  this  change  in  the  state  law.  His  veto  ended 
the  campaign  of  1907. 

The  campaign  of  1908  was  also  carried  on  at  Albany. 
The  White  Bill  again  passed  the  Senate  with  more  than  a 
two-thirds  vote,  but  was  killed  in  the  Committee  on  Rules 
of  the  Assembly.  Apparently,  the  chairman  of  the  New 
York  County  Republican  Committee  had  more  influence 
with  the  Rules  Committee  than  did  the  Assembly  itself, 
because  although  104  of  the  150  members  of  the  Assembly 
signed  a  petition  requesting  that  committee  to  report  our 
bill  out,  their  prayer  availed  naught.  Furthermore,  I  was 
told  that  if  the  petition  were  signed  by  every  member  ex- 
cept the  five  forming  the  Committee  on  Rules,  the  bill 
would  not  be  reported  out  on  account  of  the  approaching 
gubernatorial  election.  It  was  evident  that  the  power  of 
an  organization  comprising  12,000  women  was  given  seri- 
ous consideration.  And  so  ended  the  campaign  of  1908. 
We  were  encouraged  by  the  indubitable  evidence  that  had 
political  exigencies  not  been  in  the  way,  our  bill  would 
have  again  passed  the  Legislature. 

The  campaign  of  1909  had  two  new  features — the  "  Con- 
ciliation Committee "  and  the  Charter  Revision  Commis- 
sion. The  Conciliation  Committee  consisted  of  seven  men 
and  seven  women,  four  of  whom — two  men  and  two  women 
— were  not  members  of  the  supervising  or  teaching  force. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  33 

Of  the  "  outsiders,"  the  two  men  were  ex-presidents  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  while  one  of  the  women  was  a 
member  of  a  local  school  board  and  the  other  of  the  Pub- 
lic Education  Society.  The  report  of  this  committee, 
signed  by  twelve  of  its  members — the  other  two,  both  Man- 
hattan male  teachers,  having  resigneil — became  the  text 
of  the  bill  of  1909. 

The  legislative  campaign  of  this  year  was  short,  because 
it  was  not  until  after  Vv'e  learned  definitely  that  the  new 
charter  was  not  to  become  law  this  session,  that  the  "  Equal 
Pay  "  bill  was  introduced.  It  was  passed  in  the  Senate  by 
a  vote  of  38  to  3,  and  in  the  Assembly  by  126  to  14. 

This  year  we  did  not  expect  the  mayor's  veto«  We  be- 
lieved that  both  the  mayor  and  the 'governor  would  study 
the  history  of  this  bill,  would  note  its  final  vote  in  the  Leg- 
islature after  three  years  of  public  agitation  both  here  and 
at  Albany,  would  consider  the  number  of  members  elected 
and  re-elected  after  voting  in  favor  of  the  women  teach- 
ers, would  appreciate  the  fact  that  many  thousands  of  tax- 
payers had  signed  petitions  in  favor  of  the  "  Equal  Pay  " 
bills,  would  compare  the  judges,  rabbis,  ministers,  priests, 
lawyers,  business  men  and  others  speaking  and  writing  in 
favor  of  the  women  teachers'  cause,  with  the  members  of 
the  Board  of  Education  and  of  the  male  teaching  force 
opposing  these  bills,  and  that  they  would  consider  such  a 
demand  from  the  people  superior  to  any  personal  or  private 
demand  in  connection  with  this  legislation. 

But  the  mayor  did  veto  the  bill.  However,  he  recog- 
nized the  importance  of  a  matter  which  had  for  nearly  four 
years  demanded  and  received  public  attention  by  provid- 
ing for  a  commission  to  investigate  the  question  of  teach- 
ers' salaries.  That  the  dignity  of  our  cause  was  also  rec- 
ognized is  indicated  by  the  personnel  of  the  commission 
appointed:  Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate,  Mr.  W.  C.  Brown, 
President  of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  and  Prof. 
John  Bates  Clark,  of  Columbia  University.  Mr.  Choate 
declined  the  appointment  and  Mr.  Brown  at  first  accepted, 
but  later  resigned.  Their  places  were  filled  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  Gustav  Schwab,  President  of  the  North  Ger- 


34  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

man  Lloyd  Steamship  Company,  and  Charles  Hallam  Keep, 
President  of  the  Knickerbocker  Trust  Company.  Their 
report  submitted  in  December,  1909,  decided  nothing,  and 
added  nothing-  new  to  the  discussion,  but  made  much  of 
the  "  Law  of  Supply  and  Demand." 

On  December  17,  1909,  a  great  mass  meeting  was  held 
in  Carnegie  Hall,  Hon.  Mirabeau  L.  Towns  presiding, 
which  unanimously  and  enthusiastically  adopted  a  resolu- 
tion providing  for  Equal  Pay  in  instalments  covering  five 
years,  which  was  approved  by  Mayor  McClellan  in  a  let- 
ter in  which  he  condemned  the  application  of  "  the  harsh 
rule  of  the  commercial  world — law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand "  to  "  a  condition  so  different  from  the  average  prob- 
lems of  daily  life." 

On  December  22,  1909,  a  similar  resolution  was  intro- 
duced in  the  Board  of  Education  by  Commissioner  Arthur 
S.  Somers,  and  hence  is  now  called  the  "  Somers'  Resolu- 
tion." 

The  introduction  of  this  resolution  by  Commissioner 
Somers  marks  a  great  speech  in  our  history — ^the  ;champion- 
ing  of  our  cause  by  one  of  the  members  of  our  own 
board. 

January  i,  1910,  a  new  Board  of  Estimate  came  into 
power,  and  one  of  its  earliest  acts  was  to  authorize  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  new  commission  on  teachers'  salaries,  on 
a  resolution  offered  by  Hon.  John  Purroy  Mitchell,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  which  provided  that  the 
commission  consist  of  five  members,  two  to  be  appointed 
by  the  mayor — Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor,  two  by  the  comp- 
troller— Hon.  William  A.  Prendergast,  and  one  by  the 
President  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen. 

The  following  have  been  named:  Mrs.  Frank  H.  Coth- 
ren,  Mr.  Clinton  L.  Rossiter,  Dr.  Lee  K.  Frankel,  Mr. 
Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Mr.  James  M.  Gifford. 

We  court  inquiry  along  pertinent  lines.  The  women 
teachers  have  nothing  to  fear  from  an  investigation.  We 
believe  that  the  more  thoroughly  and  more  widely  the  mat- 
ter is  understood,  the  better  it  is  for  us.  There  is  always, 
however,  the  danger  that  a  commission  will  deal  with  a 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK  35 

live,  concrete  problem  as  if  it  were  a  dead,  abstract  one. 
We  would  like  the  members  of  this  commission  to  visit 
the  schools,  and  see  the  teachers  at  work,  we  would  like 
them  to  have  the  power  to  put  those  whom  they  call  before 
them  on  oath,  and  to  be  sure  that  they  were  dealing  with 
facts,  not  opinions ;  with  conditions,  not  theories. 

We  consider  all  inquiries  as  to  our  "  needs  "  as  not  per- 
tinent. We  hold  that  if  the  daughter  of  a  millionaire,  or 
even  Hetty  Green  herself,  should  qualify  and  secure  a 
position  as  teacher  in  our  public  schools,  the  city  should 
pay  her  according  to  the  position  it  permits  her  to  hold, 
regardless  of  her  "  needs  "  as  compared  with  those  of  other 
teachers,  either  male  or  female.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten 
that  99  per  cent  of  the  women  who  work  are  doing  so, 
because  through  inability,  indifference,  dissipation,  illness, 
or  death,  some  man — father  or  husband  or  brother — ^has 
made  it  necessary.  And  shall  we  be  called  upon  to  pub- 
lish these  facts?  For  instance,  I  know  a  teacher,  ill  her- 
self, who  pays  the  board  of  an  insane  uncle  so  that  her 
mother's  brother  may  not  become  a  charge  on  the  state. 
Should  she  be  called  upon  to  tell  this?  Has  it  any  just 
bearing  on  the  amount  of  money  the  .city  should  pay  her 
for  teaching  some  of  its  children? 

Meantime,  we  have  been  greatly  encouraged  by  the  at- 
titude of  the  Charter  Revision  Committees.  The  Ivins 
Commission,  1908-9,  provided  for  "  like  salaries "  for 
"  like  positions."  The  Legislative  Charter  Commission — • 
1909 — recommended  "  The  classes  and  grades  and  salaries 
of  each  class  and  grade  of  members  of  the  supervising  and 
teaching  staffs  shall  be  fixed  with  regard  to  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  the  position  and  the  fitness  and  experi- 
ence of  the  appointee  thereto  or  incumbent  therein,  irre- 
spective of  sex." 

The  Legislative  Charter  Commission  bill — 1910— con- 
tained a  similar  clause  in  parentheses  with  a  note  explaining 
that  the  vote  as  to  whether  or  not  it  should  be  included  in 
final  report  to  Legislature,  was  a  tie. 

This  clause  was  eliminated  by  the  Assembly  Cities  Com- 
mittee under  the  influence  of  Mr.  Warren  L  Lee,  but  ou 


36  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

May  2T„  1910,  was  restored  by  the  Assembly  at  the  request 
of  Mr.  A.  E.  Smith,  by  a  vote  of  78  to  12. 

Among  the  prominent  advocates  of  "  Equal  Pay "  we 
quote  Mr.  J.  Edward  Swanstrom :  "  The  contention  of  the 
women  teachers  is  that  they  are  fighting  for  a  principle 
and  not  merely  for  an  increase  in  salaries.  This  principle 
may  be  briefly  stated  to  be  '  equal  pay  for  equal  work,' 
that  is  to  say,  for  work  of  a  given  position  women  shall  re- 
ceive pay  with  men.  This  principle  prevailed  during  the 
many  years  that  I  was  President  of  the  Brooklyn  Board 
of  Education,  and  there  is  much  to  be  said  in  its  favor. 
To  pay  a  woman  teacher  a  salary  of  $1,000  for  doing  the 
same  kind  of  work — and  doing  it  as  well — for  which  a 
male  teacher  receives  a  salary  of  $1,500,  seems  very  much 
like  imposing  a  tax  of  $500  upon  the  woman  teacher, 
merely  because  she  is  a  woman.  Miss  Strachan,  the  able 
leader  of  the  women  teachers  in  their  equal-pay  crusade, 
characterizes  such  discrimination  as  degrading." 

We  point  with  pleasure  to  the  following  extract  from 
the  minutes  of  the  Board  of  Education,  City  of  New  York, 
March  27,  1907: 

"  From  the  Secretary  of  the  City  Club  of  New  York, 
stating  .that  at  a  meeting  of  the  trustees  of  said  club,  held 
on  March  20,  1907,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted: 

" '  Resolved,  That  this  board  recommend  to  the  Board 
of  Education  that  women  teachers  in  the  City  of  New 
York  should  receive  the  same  salary  as  men  teachers  for 
the  same  amount  and  quality  of  work.' " 

About  the  same  time,  the  Public  Education  Association 
wrote  to  the  Board  of  Education,  telling  them  that  the  as- 
sociation favored  paying  men  and  women  the  same  salary 
for  the  same  positions,  and  submitting  the  opinion  that 
the  board  should  do  all  possible  to  get  the  Board  of  Esti- 
mate to  endorse  such  a  scheme. 

The  following  quotations  show  that  even  our  opponents 
are  in  favor  of  "Equal  Pay  " : 

Senator  Fuller: — "I  believe  in  the  principle  of  equaliza- 
tion as  fully  as  any  other  senator.  I  believe  women  should 
get  the  same  salaries  as  men." — In  Senate,  Apr.  15,  1907. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  37 

Senator  Travis : — "  I  desire  to  say  to  my  colleagues 
that  I  have  never  opposed  the  principle  of  equal  pay." — 
In  Senate,  1908. 

Assemblyman  Lee  told  our  committee  he  believed  in  the 
"  Equal  Pay"  principle ;  but  he  opposed  us  on  the  ground 
of  "expediency." 

Edgar  S.  Shumway,  at  meeting  of  Presidents  of  Asso- 
ciations, Board*  Rooms,  April  i,  1909: — ^"I  am  free  to  say 
that  if  the  money  were  under  my  control,  I  would  see  to 
it  that  the  woman  who  is  first  assistant  in  a  High  School, 
as  I  am,  received  as  much  money  as  I  received." 

Sidney  C.  Walmsley: — "We  do  not  raise  objections  to 
equalization."  (Hearing  before  Senate  Cities  Committee, 
Feb.  26,  1907.) 

City  Superintendent  Maxwell,  in  Tenth  Annual  Re- 
port : — "  With  regard  to  women  principals  it  must  be  quite 
clear  to  anyone  familiar  with  the  work  of  the  board  of  ex- 
aminers that  it  is  quite  as  difficult  to  obtain  women  princi- 
pals of  the  requisite  scholastic  and  professional  attainments 
and  executive  ability  as  it  is  to  obtain  men  principals.  On 
this  ground  I  recommend  that  as  soon  as  money  is  avail- 
able the  salaries  of  women  principals  be  equalized  with 
those  of  men." 

Commenting  on  the  above,  the  Globe  of  Jan.  10,  1908, 
said: 

"  The  Board  of  Education  has  found  it  more  difficult  to 
obtain  women  teachers  of  the  requisite  ability  than  it  is  to 
obtain  men  teachers.  Evidence  of  this  fact  is  shown  in 
the  action  of  the  board  of  examiners,  in  granting  conces- 
sions in  examinations  to  the  women  teachers  in  order  to 
increase  the  supply.  It  has  not  granted  concessions  to  the 
men.  On  this  ground  it  would  seem  that  the  salaries  of 
women  teachers  should  be  at  least  *  equalized  with  those 
of  men.' " 

One  of  the  most  regrettable  features  of  the  agitation 
has  been  an  evident  distrust  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. 

Mr.  Harrison,  member  of  board,  at  mayor's  hearing. 
May  II,  1909: — "That  is  our  first  objection  to  this  bill — 


38  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

a  four  mills  appropriation  to  the  general  school  fund.  Four 
mills  on  the  assessed  valuation  would  amount  to  $7,158,- 
190 — that  enormous  sum.  This  amount  would  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  disburse,  and 
it  is  quite  a  general  rule,  quite  the  tendency  of  human 
nature,  that  anybody  having  seven  millions  of  money  to 
spend,  finds  some  means  to  spend  it."     And 

Mr.  Stern : — "  There  has  never  been  in  the  history  of 
the  Board  of  Education  any  year  in  which  there  has  been 
any  excess  placed  in  the  treasury  and  if  this  bill  passes, 
I  can  assure  you,  acting  in  good  faith,  there  will  be  so 
many  activities  presented  to  us  that  the  taxpayers  will  find 
that  there  never  will  be  any  excesses  paid  back  into  the 
treasury." 

And  yet  the  records  of  the  comptroller's  office  show 
that  on  May  22,  1903,  the  Board  of  Education  re- 
turned a  surplus  of  $1,000,000  from  1900  taken  from  the 
general  appropriation  school  fund.  On  the  same  date  they 
turned  in  $330,000  from  the  general  school  fund  appro- 
priation for  1910,  to  be  turned  into  the  general  fund  for  the 
reduction  of  taxes. 

Do  I  hear  some  reader  ask:  What  is  the  cause  of  all 
this  agitation?  What  is  it  all  about?  Let  me  cite  a  few 
prominent  examples  of  the  "  glaring  inequalities "  and 
"  gross  injustices  " — ^the  words  quoted  are  from  Governor 
Hughes'  message  on  our  bill — existing  in  the  present  sal- 
ary schedules. 

Suppose  a  boy  and  a  girl — they  may  even  be  twins — 
have  been  sent  to  the  same  schools,  been  taught  by  the 
same  teachers,  passed  the  same  examinations,  and  finally 
been  appointed  to  teach  classes  identical  in  grade  and  sex 
of  pupils.  Suppose  both  succeed  to  the  satisfaction  of 
their  superior  officers,  and  appear  for  their  reward.  Is 
it  not  the  same  for  both  ?  Oh,  no !  The  one  who  was  the 
boy,  simply  because  of  his  sex,  receives  a  yearly  salary 
$330  higher  than  that  of  the  one  born  a  girl. 

How  long  would  a  woman  have  to  teach  a  similar  class 
of  boys  in  order  to  receive  the  salary  a  man  receives  the 
first  year?     Seven  years.     And  not  then  even  would  she 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  39 

receive  it,  unless  she  had  passed  the  examination  by  both 
principal  and  district  superintendent  for  renewal  of  license 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  again  at  the  end  of  the  second 
year,  and  for  permanent  license  at  the  end  of  the  third 
year.  Her  record  being  satisfactory,  she  would  receive  an 
increase  of  $40  each  year,  until  the  end  of  the  seventh 
year.  Her  salary  would  then  be  $840,  and  would  remain 
such  unless  she  be  rated  as  "  fit  and  meritorious  "  by  both 
principal  and  superintendents.  Thus  you  see,  a  woman 
teacher  must  teach  seven  years  and  pass  satisfactorily 
through  four  examinations  before  she  receives  a  salary 
equal  to  that  of  a  man  teaching  the  identical  class  would 
receive  the  first  year.  But  what  would  the  man  teacher 
be  receiving  in  his  seventh  year?  This  is  indeed  interest- 
ing. Instead  of  an  increase  of  $40  each  year  he  has  been 
receiving  one  of  $105,  so  that  his  salary  has  mounted  to 
$1,530.  The  percentage  of  increase  in  the  case  of  the  man 
is  so  much  larger  than  in  the  case  of  the  woman  that  the 
original  discrepancy  of  50  per  cent  grows  from  year  to 
year  until  after  twelve  years  of  service  he  receives  $2160, 
and  she  for  the  same  work  and  the  same  sacrifice  of  years 
earns  $1080,  or  just  one-half  of  what  he  receives. 

Take  another  instance.  It  is  a  well  recognized  principle 
that  the  supervisor  should  be  paid  a  higher  salary  than 
the  person  supervised  by  him.  Yet  in  our  remarkable 
schedule  of  salaries  the  maximum  salary  of  an  assistant 
to  principal,  if  a  woman,  is  $1600,  though  she  supervises 
male  teachers  who  receive  as  high  as  $2160  and  even 
$2400.  Bear  in  mind  that  these  male  teachers  are  not 
eligible  to  hold  the  position  she  does,  that  she  must  have 
had  at  least  eight  years  of  experience  before  she  is  per- 
mitted to  take  the  examination  for  license  as  assistant  to 
principal,  and  that  this  examination  is  so  difficult  that  sixty 
per  cent  of  those  who  took  it  in  1907,  failed„ 

Again,  to  be  principal  one  must  have  had  at  least  ten 
years  of  experience,  must  have  passed  an  examination, 
which  records  prove  to  be  very  difficult,  and  must  have 
waited  often  as  long  as  four  years  for  appointment  from  an 
eligible  list.     Supposing  a  most  unusual  case,  that  a  woman 


40  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

becomes  a  principal  in  her  twelfth  year  of  service,  her  sal- 
ary of  $1750  as  such,  is  $305  less  than  that  of  a  male 
teacher,  also  in  his  twelfth  year  of  service,  who  may  be 
teaching  a  "baby  class,"  and  is  $650  less  than  that  of  a 
male  teacher  of  a  graduating  class.  Her  maximum  sal- 
ary of  $2500  is  only  $100  more  than  that  of  a  male  teacher, 
wlio  may  have  a  small  class  of  girls  in  the  graduating 
class,  while  she  may  have  the  responsibility  of  a  school  of 
3000  pupils  and  the  supervision  of  sixty  teachers,  A  male 
principal  of  the  identical  school  would  receive  $1000  a 
year  more  than  the  woman. 

Such  examples  as  these  indicate  that  a  consideration  in- 
compatible with  the  principle  that  all  citizens  are  equal 
before  the  law  has  been  influential  in  determining  that  a 
position  when  filled  by  one  person  shall  command  a  higher 
salary  than  when  filled  by  another  person,  though  the 
work  is  equally  well  done  and  equally  satisfactory  in  re- 
sults. 

In  spite  of  the  importance  attached  to  the  question  of 
cost  in  some  quarters,  it  is  a  minor  consideration  in  com- 
parison with  the  equities  of  the  situation.  The  constitu- 
tion of  the  state  provides  that  no  citizen's  property  shall  be 
taken  from  him  without  proper  compensation ;  and  it  is  to 
the  honor  of  our  government  in  all  its  divisions  that  com- 
plaint is  seldom  or  never  heard  that  private  property  is 
taken  without  paying  for  it  all  that  it  is  worth.  It  cer- 
tainly is  not  contemplated  that  in  any  phase  of  govern- 
ment, or  any  branch  of  the  public  service,  citizens  shall 
be  required  to  work  for  less  than  their  services  are  worth. 
It  would  be  fatal  to  the  future  and  the  fame  of  any  legis- 
lator or  of  any  man  in  public  life,  to  advocate  a  law  which 
should  provide  that  a  woman  teacher  in  the  schools  of  New 
York  City  should  work  twelve  hours  and  a  male  teacher 
six  hours  for  the  same  pay.  Yet  that  is  an  exact  equiva- 
lent of  what  the  present  schedules  do.  The  principle  is 
identically  the  same  as  though  a  law  were  enacted  com- 
pelling her  to  work  two  hours  to  his  one  in  order  to  get 
the  same  compensation.  To  propose  such  a  rule  would 
excite  derision  and  contempt.    Why  should  the  law  now 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  41 

in  existence  not  meet  with  the  same  derision  and  contempt, 
and  be  speedily  amended  ? 

The  Interboroug-h  Association  of  Women  Teachers  of 
the  City  of  New  York  predicts  that  it  will. 

Our  Association  early  in  1908  gathered  some  statistics.* 
They  showed  377  women — eleven  of  them  married  and  six 
widows — supporting  707  others  besides  themselves.  These 
teachers  are  all  women,  but  the  people  depending  wholly 
upon  them  or  partly  upon  them  are  their  mothers  or  their 
fathers  or  both  or  a  brother  or  a  sister  or  a  niece  or  a 
nephew.  These  are  actual  figures  collated  from  written 
answers  to  our  questionnaire.  You  see,  then,  that  here  is 
an  average  of  two  people  for  every  woman  to  support  be- 
sides herself.  Now,  what  salary  is  offered  to  these  young 
women  of  twenty-one  years  of  age,  after  they  have  spent 
all  these  years  in  preparing  for  the  position  of  teacher? 
What  salary  is  she  being  paid  by  the  City  of  New  York, 
the  greatest  icity  in  the  world,  with  the  greatest  public 
school  system  in  the  world?  $11.53  a  week.  A  woman  in 
charge  of  one  of  the  stations  in  the  city  gets  more  than  that. 
Does  the  latter  have  to  spend  as  much  money  on  clothes? 
No.  She  can  wear  the  same  clothes  from  one  end  of  the 
year  to  the  other  if  she  wants  to,  and  not  be  criticised.  But 
I  know  when  I  go  into  a  classroom,  among  the  things  that 
I  notice  is  the  teacher's  dress — whether  it  is  neat,  whether 
it  is  appropriate.  She  must  be  a  model  for  her  class.  Be- 
sides, the  teacher  must  live  in  a  respectable  neighborhood 
and  make  a  good  appearance  at  home  and  abroad,  and  she 
must  continue  her  studies  in  order  to  give  satisfactory 
service. 

Another  thing  that  we  must  not  forget  is  that  a  teacher 
has  to  eat  and  live  on  Saturday  and  Sunday  and  during  the 
summer  holidays.  A  member  of  the  Board  of  Education 
said  to  me  that  although  $11.53  was  not  a  big  salary  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  that  a  teacher  only  worked  five  days. 

*  Our  experience  with  this  questionnaire  showed  us  that  the 
teachers  resented — and  we  felt  the  resentment  was  justified — our 
inquiry  into  their  family  affairs.     A   few   resigned  because   of  it 

G.  C.  S. 


42  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Well,  that  is  the  number  of  days  we  are  in  school.  But 
those  who  know  teachers,  know  that  we  work  other  days 
and  other  nights  and  often  all  summer,  preparing  to  make 
ourselves  more  valuable  to  our  pupils  and  our  employer. 
But  whether  we  work  or  not,  we  must  have  something  to 
eat  and  somewhere  to  sleep,  and  something  to  wear  on  those 
other  days.  And  furthermore,  the  hours  and  the  vacations 
are  the  same  for  the  men  teachers  as  for  the  women  teach- 
ers. So  that  does  not  seem  a  very  fair  reason  to  give  why 
salaries  should  not  be  equalized. 

Another  reason  sometimes  given  for  paying  men  more  is 
that  they  are  needed  for  special  work  in  the  schools.  If 
they  are,  the  Board  of  Education  should  classify  those  po- 
sitions. We  hear  some  talk  about  the  need  for  athletics. 
We  shall  be  glad  if  the  men  assist  in  the  athletics.  But  I 
knew  a  school  of  48  classes  with  no  man  teacher  except  the 
one  in  the  shop,  that  graduated  about  200  boys  and  girls  a 
year,  and  during  one  term  the  athletic  teams  in  that  school 
beat  almost  every  school  they  played  with.  And  I  knew  an- 
other school  of  equal  size  and  grade  that  had  three  men 
teachers  besides  the  one  in  the  shop,  and  it  didn't 
win  a  single  game — 'because  it  didn't  have  any  athletic 
teams. 

In  evidence  of  the  world-wide  character  of  the  subject 
of  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work,"  I  quote  the  following : 

New  York  Times,  1908 — In  Shaffhausen  the  women 
teachers  have  won  the  equal-pay  fight  in  which  New  York 
women  have  failed. 

Recently  there  was  held  in  Nancy,  France,  the  first  con- 
gress of  university  women.  All  classes  of  public  school 
teachers  were  represented,  and  many  questions  relating  to 
the  schools  were  discussed,  but  the  most  important  was 
equal  pay  for  the  women  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools. 

This  agitation  for  equal  pay  in  France  is  of  long  stand- 
ing, as  on  March  13,  1886,  M.  Goblet  offered  an  amend- 
ment to  the  law  fixing  the  salaries  of  the  men  and  women 
teachers  at  the  same  rate.  But  the  lack  of  sufficient  funds 
prevented  it  from  becoming  a  law.  Another  effort  was 
made  in  1889  and  again  in  1905.    In  1907  a  parliamentary 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  43 

commission  declared  itself  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  equal 
pay  for  equal  work,  and  it  was  decided  to  organize  a  cam- 
paign to  secure  legislation  on  this  subject.  At  the  follow- 
ing election  this  was  the  most  important  question  in  the 
provinces.  This  campaign  has  been  carried  on  most  ear- 
nestly for  the  past  two  years.  Societies  of  university 
women  have  been  founded  in  nearly  every  school  district 
in  France.  These  have  been  united  in  a  very  powerful  fed- 
eration, the  secretary  general  of  which  is  a  brave  teacher 
of  Lorraine,  Mile.  Marie  Gueron  of  Laxoules — Nancy.  A 
huge  petition  in  favor  of  equal  salaries  has  been  circulated 
in  all  the  public  schools  of  France  and  tens  of  thousands 
signatures  have  been  gathered. 

"  A  dispute  over  the  equal  pay  of  women  and  men  phy- 
sicians has  just  terminated  in  Halifax.  The  dispute  began 
by  the  issue  of  an  advertisement  by  the  Halifax  Board  of 
Guardians  for  a  resident  woman  physician  at  a  salary  of 
$500  a  year.  Previously  the  position  had  been  held  by  a 
man  at  a  salary  of  $750  a  year.  The  matter  was  taken  up 
at  once  by  the  London  School  of  Medicine  for  Women, 
which  called  the  attention  of  the  British  Medical  Associa- 
tion to  it.  The  British  Medical  Journal  got  interested  and 
as  a  result  of  its  warning  the  woman  physician  who  had 
applied  for  and  received  the  place  resigned.  In  July  the 
Guardians  appointed  another  woman  to  the  place.  This 
woman,  when  her  attention  was  palled  to  the  dispute,  asked 
to  be  released  from  the  appointment  and  the  bond  of  $250 
which  she  had  agreed  to  forfeit  in  case  she  failed  to  serve 
twelve  months.  This  brought  the  Halifax  Board  of  Guard- 
ians to  terms  and  established  the  principle  of  equal  pay 
for  men  and  women  physicians  so  far  as  they  are  con- 
cerned." 


TEACHERS    EQUAL  PAY  FIGHT 

(New  York  Press  ) 

"  There  is  trouble  about  the  salary  of  women  teachers  in 
New  South  Wales,  Australia,  almost  paralleling  the  fight 


44  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

that  the  women  teachers  have  waged  for  several  years  in 
this  city  for  equal  pay  for  equal  work  with  men.  The  Aus- 
tralian women  teachers  also  charged  they  were  underpaid 
in  comparison  with  the  men  teachers.  The  Women's  Pro- 
gressive Association  of  New  South  Wales  took  the  lead  in 
the  fight,  which  has  ended  its  first  phase  with  complete 
victory  for  the  women  teachers.  An  appropriation  of 
$300,000  for  increase  in  teachers'  salaries  was  made,  and 
the  men  calmly  proceeded  to  grab  the  entire  amount.  A 
vigorous  protest  was  made  by  the  association,  but  it  was 
not  until  after  a  bitter  fight  that  it  was  directed  women 
teachers  should  share  equally  in  the  increase.  The  women, 
however,  found  argument  and  persuasion  useless,  and  it 
was  not  until  they  threatened  to  make  use  of  their  voting 
privilege  in  a  body  that  they  won  their  point.  Now  the 
teachers  are  going  on  for  equal  pay  all  around,  and  they 
are  confident  they  will  score  a  second  and  greater  victory." 


WHERE  EDUCATION  IS  WORTH  WHILE 

(The  Globe  ) 

"  Frequent  expression  is  given  to  the  view  that  teachers 
in  New  York  City  ought  to  be  happy  with  their  lot,  for  the 
reason  that  they  are  better  paid  than  teachers  elsewhere, 
and  that  conditions  here  are  better.  But  evidence  is  grow- 
ing to  prove  that  these  are  not  the  facts. 

"  In  Argentina,  which  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  progressive  nations  of  the  earth,  education  and 
the  '  business '  of  school  teaching  is  put  first  of  all  duties. 
There  they  do  not  pay  out  their  revenues  for  all  sorts  of 
things  and  divide  what  is  left  among  the  teachers. 

"  The  teachers'  pay  is  placed  first  among  obligations. 
After  a  certain  length  of  service  the  teacher  is  put  on  the 
retired  list  and  her  pay  goes  on  till  death.  As  high  as 
$2,000  is  paid  to  retired  teachers.  The  close  of  a  thirty 
years'  service  is  made  a  great  event,  greater  than  the  open- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  45 

ing  of  an  exposition  or  the  inauguration  of  a  governor. 
And  New  York  is  called  progressive." 


EXPLANATORY   NOTES 

"  I.  A.  W.  T."  or  "  Interborough  "  means  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers. 

"  Board  "  means  Board  of  Education. 

"  Board  of  Estimate "  means  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment. 

In  New  York  City,  the  course  in  the  elementary  schools 
covers  eight  years.  Each  year  covers  two  grades.  The 
first  half  is  designated  by  "  A,"  the  second,  by  "  B."  Thus 
5A  grade  means  first  half  of  fifth  year;  8B,  last  half  of 
eighth  year. 

Knowing  that  the  public  would  be  justified  in  thinking 
me  prejudiced  in  favor  of  "  Equal  Pay,"  I  have  used  so 
many  quotations  from  authorities  of  far  higher  rank  than 
myself  that  the  book  is  almost  wholly  a  compilation.  I 
have  included  many  of  the  speeches  made  at  the  hearings, 
mass  meetings,  and  banquets  where  our  "  Cause  "  was  dis- 
cussed. I  have  also  letters  and  articles  that  have  appeared 
in  the  public  press,  as  well  as  personal  letters.  Should  I, 
by  an  oversight,  have  used  any  personal  letter  without  the 
writer's  permission,  I  hope  I  shall  be  pardoned,  I  wish  I 
could  have  included  every  word  that  has  been  said  or 
written  in  our  behalf,  every  name  that  has  been  signed  to 
a  petition.    We  appreciate  every  one. 

The  book  is  in  six  parts. 

Part  I — History,  story,  and  some  arguments. 

Part  II — Addresses. 

Part  III — Editorial  comment. 

Part  IV — Letters. 

Part  V — Endorsements:  Board  of  Aldermen,  Business, 
Editors,  Artists,  Literateurs,  Educators,  Judges,  Lawyers, 
Doctors,  Labor  Unions,  Political  Clubs  and  Officials,  Re- 
ligious, Women's  Clubs. 

Part  VI — Documents. 


46  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SUMMARY. 

1906. 

"  Consolidation "    and    Need    of    Uniform    Schedules    for    Greater 

New  York. 
Ahearn  Law,  1898-99. 
Davis  Law,  1900. 
Organization    of    Interborough    Association    of    Women    Teachers, 

1906. 
Petition  to  Board  of  Education. 
Individual  members  of  Board  petitioned. 
How  Much  Will  It  Cost? 
Committee  waits  on  President  Winthrop. 
Committee  waits  on  Mayor  McClellan. 
Committee  waits  on  other  members  of  Board  of  Estimate. 
Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  again  asks  hearing. 

1907. 

Hearing — Attended   by    Mr.    Harrison    and    Mr.    Stern — Board    of 

Education. 
Committee  goes  to  Albany. 
Committee  sees  Governor  Hughes,  Lieutenant-Governor  Chanler  and 

Speaker  Wadsworth. 
McCarren  Bill  introduced. 
Conklin  Bill  introduced. 
Report  of  Committee  on  By-Laws. 
Hearing  on  McCarren  Bill. 
Hearing  in  Assembly  on  Conklin  Bill. 
White  Bill  passes  Senate  45  to  i. 
Hearing  in  Assembly  on  White  Bill. 
White  Bill  passes  Assembly  105  to  15. 
Hearing  before  Mayor  McClellan. 
McClellan  Veto. 

White  Bill  re-passes  Senate  Z7  to  9. 
White  Bill  re-passes  Assembly  82  to  55. 
Hearing  before  Governor  Hughes. 
Governor  Hughes'  veto. 
First  annual  banquet. 
Board  of  Education  proposes  increases. 

1908. 

Cooper  Union  Mass  Meeting — ^Jan.  20 — ^John  Francis  Yawger,  pre- 
siding. 

Association  Hall  Mass  Meeting— Mar.  6th — Hon.  William  J.  Gay- 
nor,  presiding. 

"  White  "  Bill  passes  Senate  35  to  8. 

"  White  "  Bill  held  in  Committee  on  Cities,  Assembly. 

"White"  Bill  held  in  Committee  on  Rules,  Assembly. 

Committee  appeals  to  Committee  on  Rules. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK  47 

Petition  to  Committee  on  Rules  signed  by  104  Assemblymen. 

Second  annual  banquet. 

Board  of  Education  proposes  increases, 

1909. 

Ivins  Charter  Revision  Commission  reports  "like  salaries"  for 
"  like  positions." 

Conciliation  Committee. 

Report  of  Conciliation  Committee. 

Meeting  of  Presidents  of  Associations — President  Winthrop,  pre- 
siding. 

"  Conciliation  Committee "  schedules  approved  by  vote  of  15  to  7. 

Apr.  6 — Hearing  on  Educational  Chapter  at  Albany,  Charter  dead. 

Davis-Smith  Bill  introduced. 

Gledhill  Bill  passes  Senate  38  to  3. 

Apr.  24 — Third  annual  banquet. 

Gledhill-Foley  Bill  passes  Assembly  26  to  14. 

Board  of  Education  disapproves  Gledhill-Foley  Bill. 

May  II — Mayor  McClellan's  hearing. 

Mayor  McClellan's  veto. 

Board  of  Education  proposes  increases. 

Hearing — Charter  Legislative  Committee. 

Hearing — Budget. 

Dec.  17 — Carnegie  Hall  Mass  Meeting,  Hon.  Mirabeau  L.  Towns, 
presiding. 

Dec.  22 — Somers   Resolution,  Board  of  Education. 

1910. 

Board  of  Estimate  Commission. 

Jan.  22 — City  Club  "  Equal  Pay  "  luncheon. 

Report  of  Charter  Legislative  Commission  carries  "  Equal  Pay." 

Mar.  16 — "  Equal  Pay  "  meeting  of  Board  of  Education  votes  down 
Somers    Resolution  23  to  16. 

Brief  on  Constitutionality  of  Davis  Law. 

Additions  to  Charter  Legislative  Commission. 

Mar.  20 — Injunction  against  Board  of  Education  to  prevent  promo- 
tion of  man  of  5  years  experience  to  Graduating  Class  over 
the  heads  of  many  eligible  women. 

April  16 — Fourth  annual  banquet. 

April  18 — "  Equal  Pay  "  clause  eliminated  by  Assembly  Cities,  As- 
sembly. 

Injunction  sustained. 

May  23 — "  Equal  Pay "  clause  restored  to  Charter  by  Assembly — 
78  to  12. 


CHAPTER   II 

ARE    MEN    TEACHERS   NEEDED? 

The  question,  "  Are  Men  Teachers  Needed  ? "  presup- 
poses others: 

(a)  Is  there  some  appreciable  difference  between  men  as 
teachers  and  women  as  teachers  that  justifies  the  placing 
of  "  Men  Teachers  "  in  a  special  and  privileged  class,  pay- 
ing them  special  and  privileged  salaries? 

(b)  Are  there  some  special  purposes  for  which  men  are 
needed  ? 

(c)  Are  men  better  teachers  than  women? 

As  to  the  first,  I  am  compelled  to  state  that  after  a  long 
and  varied  experience  as  pupil,  teacher,  principal  and  su- 
perintendent, in  both  day  and  evening  schools,  I  am  not 
able  to  answer  in  the  affirmative  except  to  state  that  the 
average  woman  teacher  is  superior  to  the  average  man 
teacher  in  all  the  qualities  that  go  to  the  making  of  good 
and  noble  men  and  women. 

ARE   MEN   TEACHERS   NEEDED? 

I  think  no  better  answer  to  this  question  could  be  writ- 
ten than  the  following  description  of  the  Indianapolis 
schools  by  Associate  City  Superintendent  Andrew  W. 
Edson,  of  New  York  City,  which  appeared  in  the  Globe, 
March  i8,  1910.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  descrip- 
tion is  of  elementary  schools  having  an  eight-year  course, 
as  ours  have,  and  that  the  teachers  and  principals  are  all 
women,  and — best  of  all — the  classes  are  all  mixed.  When 
will  New  York  City  be  so  progressive  as  to  do  away  with 
the  Oriental  custom  of  separating  our  boys  and  girls? 

Mr.  Edson  says :  "  The  average  work  of  the  schools  is 
high.  Some  of  it  is  about  the  same  as  may  be  found  in 
New  York,  certainly  not  better;  some  of  it  is  decidedly  in 

48 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  49 

advance.    I  wish  to  speak  of  a  few  aspects  of  the  schools 
that  may  be  of  especial  interest  to  New  York  teachers. 

"  In  several  schools  algebra  and  Latin  are  taught  in  the 
eighth  year  of  the  elementary  course.  These  .studies  are 
offered  only  to  those  pupils  who  show  exceptional  ability 
in  mathematics  and  language  studies.  German,  as  an  elec- 
tive, is  taught  from  the  second  to  the  eighth  year.  Oppor- 
tunity is  given  all  pupils  who  maintain  a  high  standard  in 
the  elementary  schools  to  gain  one-half  year's  credit  in  the 
high  schools  in  algebra,  Latin,  German,  civics,  and  ad- 
vanced English. 

"  Civics : — The  study  of  civics  takes  place  in  history  in 
the  last  half  year  of  the  elementary  school  course.  The 
pupils  are  provided  with  copies  of  Dunn's  *  The  Commu- 
nity and  the  Citizen.'  The  author  of  this  book  is  the  di- 
rector of  civics  in  the  schools  o£  the  city.  Owing  partly  to 
the  fact  that  the  plan  of  the  book  and  the  effort  of  the 
teachers  present  the  subject  in  such  an  interesting  and  prac- 
tical manner,  to  the  fact  that  some  one  supervises  the  work 
closely  and  supplies  mimeographed  copies  of  practical  sug- 
gestions to  the  teachers  from  time  to  time,  and  to  the  fur- 
ther fact  that  sufficient  time  and  attention  are  given  to  the 
subject,  the  instruction  in  civics  was  the  most  satisfactory 
of  any  I  have  ever  observed. 

The  great  aim  seemed  to  be  the  creation  of  an  interest 
in  community  relations  and  the  formation  of  habits  of  civic 
thought  and  action.  Teachers  and  pupils  made  the  subject 
intensely  interesting  by  the  introduction  of  so  much  that 
was  local  and  personal. 

"  Mathematics :  The  point  of  special  interest  in  the  teach- 
ing of  arithmetic  is  an  innovation  attempted  this  year  in 
dispensing  with  a  text-book  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
years,  and  the  substitution  therefor  of  sets  of  problems  pre- 
pared by  a  committee  of  the  teachers.  The  problems  all 
bear  upon  the  prices  of  articles  in  the  local  meat  markets, 
grocery  stores,  department  stores  and  the  manufacturing* 
establishments  in  the  city  and  state;  the  cost  of  running 
the  city  departments,  including  the  schools,  fire,  police  and 
street  cleaning;  the  local  improvements,  tax  rate,  bond  is- 


50  EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

sues,  railroad  and  bank  issues;  the  cost  of  labor  and  pro- 
duction. The  work  is  a  novel  attempt  to  make  the  study 
of  arithmetic  eminently  practical  to  the  pupils  in  the  In- 
dianapolis schools. 

"  English :  There  seemed  to  be  a  general  agreement 
among  the  visiting  superintendents  that  the  one  distinctive 
point  of  excellence  in  the  Indianapolis  schools  is  the  study 
of  English.  The  course  of  study  and  syllabus  in  this  sub- 
ject are  very  complete  and  suggestive.  Much  of  the  work 
in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  is  of  a  high  school  grade. 
In  all  the  elementary  grades  special  attention  is  given  to 
good  oral  expression.  In  nearly  every  instance  the  pupils 
expressed  themselves  readily  in  correct  English.  There  was 
a  noticeable  fluency  of  expression  in  several  exercises  ob- 
served. The  attention  of  the  pupils  was  directed  to  help- 
ful criticism ;  the  pupils  were  encouraged  to  note  the  use 
of  choice  English  and  the  expressions  deserving  special 
commendation.    A  fine  spirit  prevailed. 

"  In  several  classes  admirable  teaching  exercises  were 
conducted,  as  follows:  While  the  pupil  was  reciting, 
several  pupils  quietly  arose  from  their  seats.  As  soon  as 
the  pupil  reciting  had  finished  his  statement,  the  pupils 
standing  supplemented  or  challenged  the  statements  made, 
or  asked  pointed  questions  of  the  one  reciting.  Often  the 
statements  of  the  supplementing  or  challenging  brought 
others  to  their  feet.  The  novelty  of  the  plan,  the  alertness 
and  intelligence  of  the  pupils,  and  the  fine  spirit  displayed, 
made  these  exercises  intensely  interesting. 

"  Manual  Training :  In  the  seventh  and  eighth  years,  the 
boys  have  shop  work  and  the  girls  have  cooking  in  special 
shop  and  cooking  centers. 

"  In  one  school  a  modified  course  of  study  is  arranged, 
and  the  boys  and  girls  are  given  four  and  one-half  hours  per 
week  in  manual  training;  three  hours  in  shop  work,  and 
one  and  one-half  hours  in  mechanical  drawing  for  the  boys 
and  one  and  one-half  hours  in  cooking,  one  and  one-half 
hours  in  sewing,  and  one  and  one-half  hours  in  freehand 
drawing  for  the  girls.  The  work  of  all  grades  appeared 
to  be  planned  and  carried  out  in  lines  eminently  practical. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  51 

"  Latin :  In  one  of  the  schools  Latin  is  made  a  live 
language.  The  teachers  and  pupils  carry  on  the  work  by 
the  conversational  method — at  least  there  is  the  freest  ex- 
change of  opinions  on  the  part  of  pupils  in  the  use  of  Latin 
words  and  sentences  to  express  thoughts.  There  is  a  con- 
stant challenge  by  the  members  of  the  class,  with  reasons 
for  the  same,  on  the  form  of  expression,  on  the  words  that 
should  be  used  in  each  particular  instance. 

"Pianola:  In  several  of  the  schools  pianolas  have  been 
secured  through  the  efforts  of  the  pupils  or  their  friends. 
These  pianolas  are  placed  in  the  lower  corridor,  and  once 
or  twice  a  week,  at  the  opening  of  the  school,  the  classes 
throughout  the  building  are  entertained  for  some  ten 
minutes.  The  doors  of  all  classes  are  opened  as  some  pupil 
operates  the  pianola.  The  name  of  the  selection  is  written 
on  the  black-board  in  each  room  so  that  the  pupils  may 
become  acquainted  with  the  selection  being  rendered. 

"  Men  teachers :  The  question  of  '  equal  pay  for  equal 
work '  is  solved  in  Indianapolis,  as  men  are  entirely  elimi- 
nated from  the  elementary  grades,  either  as  teachers  or 
principals.  All  of  the  classes  are  mixed,  so  that  no  boys' 
*  bonus '  classes  are  formed.  And,  if  I  was  correctly  in- 
formed, the  salary  schedule  allows  the  same  compensation 
in  one  elementary  grade  that  it  does  in  any  other — a  blessed 
relief  in  the  assignment  of  teachers. 

"  I  doubt  if,  all  in  all,  a  better  school  organization  and 
better  school  work  can  be  found  in  the  United  States  than 
in  Indianapolis.'" 

I  have  quoted  thus  fully  from  Mr.  Edson's  letter,  to 
show  the  excellence  of  the  plans  of  work  in  all  lines,  and 
to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  all  the  teachers  and  even 
all  the  principals,  are  women. 

In  March,  1907,  the  Public  Education  Association  sent 
a  communication  to  the  Board  of  Education,  from  which 
the  following-  is  quoted :  "  That  the  work  of  the  women 
teachers  is  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  that  of  the  men  engaged 
in  teaching  in  the  public  schools  seems  not  to  be  seriously 
disputed  anywhere.  It  is  also  admitted  that  the  women 
teachers  in  an  increasing  number  make  of  their  teaching  a 


52  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

life  work,  while  too  many  of  the  men  regard  it  merely  as  a 
stepping-stone  to  be  used  only  while  they  fit  themselves  for 
the  law  or  some  other  profession. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  changed  economic  conditions 
no  longer  justify  paying  the  man  a  larger  salary  than  the 
woman,  on  the  ground  that  the  support  of  a  family  is  de- 
pendent upon  his  wage,  inasmuch  as  a  large  proportion,  at 
least,  of  the  women  teachers  are  devoting  their  wage  to  this 
identical  purpose,  while  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  men  are 
still  unmarried  and  looking  elsewhere  for  a  permanent  sup- 
port. 

"  While,  for  these  reasons,  the  Public  Education  Asso- 
ciation approves  of  the  policy  of  'equal  pay,'  it  does  not 
hold  the  teachers  justified  in  going  to  Albany  for  legisla- 
tion to  make  the  adoption  of  such  a  policy  mandatory  upon 
the  Board  of  Education.  Not  only  is  this  step  offensive 
to  the  policy  of  home  rule,  which  in  such  a  matter  stands 
for  the  idea  of  local  responsibility  and  self-respect,  but  it 
means  the  appeal  from  a  body  well  informed  to  one  less 
informed.  The  solution  of  the  question  rightly  belongs,  in 
our  opinion,  to  the  Board  of  Education,  and  we  earnestly 
hope  that  it  will  take  the  matter  up  for  the  fullest  investi- 
gation and  consideration  with  a  view  to  making  an  appeal 
to  the  city  authorities  for  suificient  funds  with  which  to  pay 
salaries  to  both  men  and  women  commensurate  with  the 
work  done." 

This  communication  has  been  ordered  "printed  and 
filed  "  in  the  minutes  of  the  board. 


CHAPTER  Iir 

ARE    MEN    TEACHERS    NEEDED    FOR    SPECIAL    PURPOSES? 

As  to  the  second  question,  '*  Are  men  teachers  needed  for 
special  purposes?"  I  am  prepared  to  say  that  if  the  pupils 
are  segregated  in  different  buildings — which,  by  the  way  is  a 
persistence  of  the  monastic  and  nunnery  ideas  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  that  I,  although  a  Catholic  myself,  deplore  as  abnor- 
mal and  unnatural  except  for  those  who  are  specially  called 
to  the  religious  life — it  would  be  consistent  to  select  men 
as  principals  of  boys'  schools  and  women  as  principals  of 
girls'  schools.  But,  though  our  board  does  maintain  many 
separate  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  it  does  not  evidence  this 
consistency  in  selecting  its  principals.  While  it  is  true  that 
it  has  not  appointed  a  woman  as  principal  of  an  all-boys' 
school,  it  has  put  three  of  our  largest  girls'  schools  under 
the  care  of  men,  viz, — Wadleigh  High  School,  Washington 
Irvine  High  School,  and  Girls'  High  School.  This  incon- 
sistency has  so  affected  the  principal  of  the  last  named 
school  that  he  apparently  saw  nothing  inconsistent  in  his 
attitude  when  he  attacked  the  schools  of  this  city  as  being 
"  feminized." 

Another  '*  special  purpose  "  for  which  there  is  yet  some 
ground  to  seek  men  rather  than  women,  is  the  development 
of  outdoor  athletics.  The  education  of  our  girls  in  outdoor 
sports  is  of  such  recent  growth  that  there  are  not  yet  as 
many  women  as  men  prepared  to  take  up  this  work.  The 
time  is  not  far  distant,  however,  when  this  discrepancy  will 
have  disappeared.  Meantime  it  is  reasonable  to  select  and 
pay  the  teachers — women  as  well  as  men — who  do  special 
work  in  this  line.  But  it  is  not  reasonable  or  fair  to  pay 
all  men  teachers — ^the  majority  of  whom  do  not  give  any 
extra  time  to  this  special  work — extra  or  special  salaries  on 
the  plea  that  they  are  "  needed  for  athletics."     I  have  re- 

53 


54  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

cently  learned  that  the  Board  of  Education  is  paying  some 
men  an  additional  bonus  extra  for  "  athletic  work."  This 
is  explained  in  the  following: 

On  September  25,  1907,  the  Board  of  Education  adopted : 
"  Resolved,  That  the  director  of  physical  training  be  em- 
powered to  designate  teachers,  either  in  the  elementary 
schools  or  in  the  high  schools,  for  after-school  services,  not 
to  exceed  one  day  at  a  time,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in 
the  conduct  of  field  days  and  athletic  competitions  of  school 
children,  and  that  the  teachers  so  designated  for  such  serv- 
ice receive  $2'.5o  for  an  afternoon  or  for  an  evening,  or 
for  a,  Saturday  morning." 

On  April  13,  1910,  the  by-law  committee  reported  that 
in  accordance  with  the  above  the  custom  has  been  to  desig- 
nate teachers  to  assist  in  the  management  of  after-school 
athletics,  and  to  reimburse  them  for  services  according  to 
the  above  resolution,  but  a  question  having  arisen  as  to  the 
legality  of  paying  the  teachers  referred  to,  in  the  absence 
of  a  by-law  making  specific  provision  for  such  payment, 
it  submitted  the  following  resolutions: 

"  Resolved,  That  section  42a.  of  the  by-laws  of  the  Board 
of  Education  be,  and  it  is  hereby  amended  by  inserting 
therein  a  new  subdivision  to  be  known  and  designated  as 
subdivision  2a,  reading  as  follows: — 2a.  Subject  to  the 
committee  on  athletics,  the  director  of  physical  training 
may  assign  persons  holding  licenses  as  teachers  for  the  pub- 
lic schools  to  the  control  and  management  of  after-school 
athletics;  but  no  person  so  assigned  shall  serve  for  more 
than  two  days  consecutively." 

"Resolved,  that  schedule  XIII,  appearing  in  subdivision 
18  of  Sec.  65  of  the  By-laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  be, 
and  it  is  hereby  amended  by  adding  thereto  a  new  clause, 
reading  as  follows: — (f)  Teachers  assigned  to  the  control 
and  management  of  after-school  athletics  shall  be  paid 
$2.50  for  service  rendered  in  an  afternoon,  in  an  evening, 
or  on  a  Saturday,  this  amendment  to  be  considered  as  in 
effect  from  and  after  January  i,  1910."    Adopted  26  to  5. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  whole  trend  of  our  board's 
treatment  of  the  subject  of  athletics  is  to  lay  stress  on  the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  55 

importance  of  athletics  for  boys.  Now,  I  believe  that  the 
physical  development  of  the  girls,  the  futurq  mothers  of  the 
race,  is  of  far  greater  importance  to  the  city  and  the  state 
than  the  physical  development  of  the  boys.  Moreover,  it 
is  more  natural  for  boys  to  play  games  in  the  open  air  than 
it  is  for  girls.  Mother  often  wants  Mary  to  "  help  with 
the  dishes  "  or  "  mind  the  baby,"  when  she  is  glad  to  have 
John  "  run  out  and  play."  Therefore,  I  hold  that  the  :city 
might  much  better  be  offering  special  rewards  to  its  women 
teachers  who  give  many  hours  in  teaching  its  girls  basket 
ball,  football,  folk  dances,  and  other  physical  training  exer- 
cises. 

While  I  have  heard  much  of  the  "  special  purposes  "  for 
which  men  are  needed,  the  most  diligent  search  of  the  City 
Charter  and  the  By-laws  of  the  Board  fails  to  discover 
them ;  but  Associate  Superintendent  Edson,  in  Mr.  Max- 
well's Tenth  Annual  Report,  says : 

"  One  of  the  most  perplexing  problems  confronting  the 
Committee  and  the  Board  of  Superintendents  at  the  present 
time,  is  the  employment  of  men  teachers.  A  few  years  ago, 
when  there  were  many  men  and  few  women,  on  the  eligible 
lists,  and  when  the  necessity  for  economizing  in  expense 
was  not  so  pressing  as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  vacancies 
were  filled  by  exhausting  the  eligible  lists  for  both  men  and 
women.  This  gave  many  schools,  especially  in  Manhattan, 
an  unusually  large  proportion  of  men  in  the  teaching  ranks. 
Many  of  these  men  were  assigned  to  work  in  the  third, 
fourth  and  fifth  years,  as  well  as  in  the  higher  grades. 

"  This  condition  of  affairs  has  continued  to  the  present 
time  with  no  definite  policy  established  for  determining  the 
number  of  men  that  should  be  allowed  each  elementary 
school  or  the  grade  of  work  to  which  they  should  be  as- 
signed. 

"  There  can  be  little  question  but  that  boys  and  even  girls 
at  some  time  in  their  elementary  course  need  the  oversight, 
instruction  of  manly  men  as  well  as  of  womanly  women; 
men  can  teach  and  manage  certain  classes  and  can  often 
teach  certain  subjects  better  than  women  can;  and  that  they 
can  be  called  upon  to  do  certain  lines  of  work  more  prop- 


56  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

eriy  than  women  can,  as  for  instance,  to  oversee  the  play- 
grounds and  sanitaries,  and  to  organize  the  athletics." 

At  last,  the  mystery  is  explained.  At  last  the  "  special 
purposes,"  the  "  certain  lines  of  work,"  are  defined.  "  To 
oversee  the  playgrounds  and  sanitaries,"  "  to  organize  ath- 
letics." And  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  these  are  the  "  special 
purposes  "  which  Superintendent  Maxwell  means  when  he 
says  in  the  same  report:  " — ^men  who  are  employed,  not 
because  on  the  average  they  teach  the  ordinary  school 
branches  better  than  women  do,  but  for  special  purposes." 

Think  of  it!  The  city  is  paying  hundreds  of  men — all 
men  teachers — from  $300  to  a  $1000  a  year  bonus  because 
a  few  of  them  police  playgrounds,  and  a  few  others  organ- 
ize athletics. 

With  reference  to  this  supervision  of  playgrounds  and 
sanitaries,  I  can  only  say  that  every  woman  principal  and 
every  woman  teacher  should  do  her  duty  along  this  line. 
I  must  also  say  that  I  have  seen  poorer  results  in  this  direc- 
tion in  schools  with  men  than  in  those  without  men.  I  do 
not  assume  that  this  is  the  rule  or  the  probability.  It  may 
be  that  the  man  principal  shirks  his  duty  and  responsibility 
in  this  particular  the  more,  the  greater  number  of  men 
teachers  in  his  corps.  Furthermore,  the  board  insists  that 
a  janitor  engage  a  matron  for  the  "  girls'  yard,"  and  that  he 
or  a  male  assistant  look  after  the  "boys'  yard."  It  is  the 
principal's  duty  to  see  that  the  janitor  does  his  duty.  Surely* 
then,  it  cannot  be  reasonably  maintained  that  a  male  teacher 
should  be  given  several  hundred  dollars  a  year  more  for 
doing  special  "  police "  service  for  the  relief  of  the  prin- 
cipal. 

Furthermore,  if  it  is  necessary — mind  you,  I  say  neces- 
sary— to  have  men  "  to  oversee  the  playgrounds  and  sani- 
taries," is  it  not  the  duty  of  the  Board  to  appoint  at  least 
one  man  teacher  to  every  school?  This  it  does  not  do. 
But  if  it  is  necessary — again,  I  ask  you  to  note  the  word 
"  necessary  " — to  have  men  for  this  purpose,  the  hundreds 
of  schools  without  men  teachers  or  even  principals  must 
evidence  lack  of  this  supervision  of  playgrounds  and  sani- 
taries.   Do  they?    I  can  confidently  say  they  do  not;  and 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  57 

it  is  plain  that  the  board  is  of  the  same  opinion,  or  it  would 
not  permit  this  lack.  Even  if  more  of  this  sort  of  super- 
vision were  necessary,  the  board  might  better  hire  a  special 
assistant  janitor  in  each  playground  than  to  pay  all  men 
teachers  a  large  bonus  for  such  purpose. 

As  to  the  boys  and  girls  needing  the  oversight  and  in- 
struction of  men  in  their  elementary  course,  I  can  do  no 
better  in  refutation  than  to  refer  to  Superintendent  Edson's 
own  statement  on  the  elementary  schools  of  Indianapolis, 
and  to  the  records  of  many  of  our  own  schools  which  have 
and  which  want  no  men  teachers.  Out  of  an  experience 
with  the  elementary  school  work  probably  at  least  equal 
to  Superintendent  Edson's,  I  say  that  there  is  great  question 
of  this  necessity.  Neither  do  I  know  of  any  subjects  which 
authorities  prove  are  better  taught  by  men.  Again  it  is  a 
question  simply  of  the  teacher.  But,  even  should  it  be 
granted  that  certain  subjects  are  better  taught  by  men,  let 
us  be  fair  and  businesslike  about  it,  and  let  us  classify  these 
subjects,  and  fix  salary  for  teachers  of  such  subjects;  but 
when  the  teachers  have  been  selected,  let  them  be  paid 
alike,  whether  they  be  all  men  or  all  women,  or  some  men 
and  some  women. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ARE    MEN    NEEDED    BECAUSE    THEY    ARE    BETTER    TEACHERS? 

Are  Men  Teachers  Needed  Because  They  are  Better 
Teachers?  I  don't  think  so.  But  instead  of  setting  forth 
some  of  my  personal  reasons  growing  out  of  my  personal 
experience,  I  will  rest  content  with  submitting  the  opinions 
of  others. 

First  as  to  discipline. 

The  Evening  Sun  of  Feb.  14,  1908,  says,  editorially: — 
"  The  significant  thing  about  the  report  made  by  the  special 
'committee  of  the  Board  of  Education  is  to  be  found  in  the 
premises  rather  than  the  conclusion.  The  revival  of  the 
rod  is  suggested.  There  is  nothing  startling  about  that. 
What  is  important  is  the  demonstration  that  conditions  exist 
which  cannot  be  met  by  the  moral  suasion,  which  is  so 
characteristic  of  a  soft  and  merciful  age. 

"  No  less  than  208  of  the  principals  and  superintendents 
in  this  city  are  for  the  rod,  while  181  oppose  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  only  64  women  favor  corporal  punishment, 
while  104  are  against  it.  This  may  mean  that  the  women 
are  more  successful  disciplinarians  than  the  men,  even 
under  present  conditions." 

The  World  of  Feb.  15,  1908,  commenting  on  the  same 
report,  says :  "  Does  the  sum  of  their  replies  confirm  the 
common  belief  that  women  teachers  are  more  successful  in 
controlling  children?  That  by  tact,  persuasion  and  moral 
influence  they  get  better  results  than  men?  Otherwise, 
why  is  it  that  the  men  incline  so  much  more  than  the 
women  to  the  use  of  force? 

"  This  is  a  fact  that  the  Board  of  Education  cannot  afford 
to  overlook  in  reaching  a  decision.  In  a  way  their  demand 
for  the  whip  reflects  upon  the  efficiency  of  the  men  them- 
selves. They  would  not  ask  for  it  if  they  knew  they  had 
succeeded  without  it." 

58 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  59^ 


AS  TO  SCHOLASTIC  RESULTS 

Figures  issued  by  Supt.  Maxwell,  bearing  on  the  pro- 
motions to  high  schools,  Jan,  1908,  show  that  in  Brooklyn, 
90  per  cent,  of  the  pupils  on  register  in  the  8  B  classes 
were  graduated,  while  in  the  Bronx  only  79  per  cent,  were 
successful.  In  the  Bronx  16.4  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  are 
male;  in  Brooklyn  10.9  per  cent.  It  may  be  that  more  of 
the  Bronx  boys  can  win  athletic  prizes;  but  I  know  that 
any  of  my  readers  who  have  had  sons  and  daughters  "  left 
back  "  after  reaching  the  graduating  class  will  not  think 
that  much  of  a  compensation.  In  this  connection,  it  is 
pertinent  to  quote  the  Globe  of  March  3,  1910,  anent  the 
"  Athletic  Scandal  " :     "  The   school   which  has  been  hit 

hardest  is  No. ,  Bronx.    The  investigation  showed  that 

the  Brooklyn  schools,  as  a  rule,  followed  the  regulations." 

There  are  several  elementary  schools  with  boys  through- 
out all  the  grades  that  have  had  no  male  teachers.  Those 
I  know  best  are  3,  11,  and  16  in  Brooklyn  (Nos.  11  and  16, 
since  the  death  of  Mr.  Lewis  and  Mr.  Dunkly,  have  some 
men  teachers).  Through  the  kindness  of  Miss  Bliss,  Miss 
McCalvey,  and  Miss  Black,  I  am  enabled  to  give  the  names 
of  some  prominent  men  who  graduated  from  said  schools. 
Can  any  four  schools  which  boast  as  long  a  line  of  male 
teachers  do  better? 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  No.  3,  BROOKLYN 

Hon.  Alvah  W.  Burlingame,  State  Senator. 

Borough  President  Alfred  E.  Steers. 

Ex-Dist.  Attorney  James  Ridgeway 

Hon.  William  Berri. 

Rev.  George  Hoyt. 

Rev.  Wilbur  Caswell. 

Dr.  William  Butler. 

Mr.  Conrad  Keyes — Lawyer. 

Mr.  Homer  Keys — Lawyer. 

Mr.  Gardner  Dresser,  Broker,  in  Wall  Street. 


6o     EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  No.  i6,  BROOKLYN 

Frederick  L.  Wurster,  Ex-Mayor  of  the  former  City  of 

Brooklyn. 
Hon.  William   B.   Hurd,  Jr.,  Lawyer,    formerly    County 

Judge,  Kings  County. 
Hon.  William  Cullen  Bryant  (Deceased),  was  Fire  Com- 
missioner of  the  City  of  Brooklyn  and  Publisher  of  the 

Brooklyn  Daily  Times. 
Rev.  John  Donlon,  Roman  Catholic  clergyman,  well-known 

public  speaker. 
Almon  Gunnison,  President,  St.  Lawrence  University. 
Hon.  Alfred  Hobley,  Ex-Sheriflf  Kings  County. 
Clarence  Lyon,  Secretary  of  the  Williamsburgh  Fire  Ins. 

Co, — one  of  the  largest  insurance  companies   in  the 

United  States. 
Morrison  Gray,  Custom  House  Broker. 
Clarence  H.  Wandel,  Lumber  Merchant. 
Herbert  Ketcham,  Brooklyn  Surrogate. 
Frank  E.  O'Reilly,  City  Magistrate,  City  of  New  York. 
John  McKee,  of  Cooper  and   McKee,   Manufacturers  of 

Refrigerators. 
J.    Wesly    Rosengaert,    Theatrical    Manager,    New    York 

City. 
David  Myrtle,  M.  D.,  of  Brooklyn. 

Rev.  Ralph  Wood  Kenyon,  Episcopal  clergyman  in  Brook- 
lyn. 
James  A.   Sperry,  now  publisher  of  the  Brooklyn  Daily 

Times,  and  a  prominent  newspaper  man. 
Daniel  T.  Wilson,  Manager-partner  of  Flandraw  and  Co. — • 

well-known   carriage   and   automobile   manufacturers. 

Ex-Pres.,  Hanover  Club. 
William  J.  Meyers,  Manager,  L^nion  Stove  Co.,  Beekman 

St.    Largest  concern  of  its  kind. 
T.  W.  Weeks,  Sec.  Barrett  Manufacturing  Co.,  of  N.  Y. 

City. 
Luke  O'Reilly,  Prominent  Criminal  Lawyer, 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  6i 


PUBLIC   SCHOOL   No.    ii,    BROOKLYN 

Mr.  Seward  Prosser,  Vice-President  of  Astor  Trust  Co., 
5th.  Ave^  and  36th.  Street,  N.  Y. 

Mr.  Paul  E.  Bonner,  Pres.  North  Side  Bank  of  Brooklyn. 

Arthur  L.  Smith,  Cashier  of  Schermerhorn  Branch  of  Me- 
chanics Bank  of  Brooklyn. 

Barent  Van  Beuthuysen,  Paying  Teller,  National  City 
Bank,  Brooklyn. 

Laurus  E.  Sutton,  Brooklyn  Savings  Bank. 

Blenhardt  Burger,  South  Brooklyn  Savings  Bank. 

Professor  William  J.  Berry,  Polytechnic  Institute. 

Wallace  Gilbert,  Editorial  staff  of  Tribune. 

Doctor  Herbert  C.  Allen. 

Dr.  James  Cole  Hancock. 

Mr.  Frank  Tyler,  Real  Estate. 

Mr.  James  L.  Brumley,  Real  Estate. 

Mr.  Edmund  D.  Fisher,  Flatbush  Trust  Co.,  now  Deputy 
Comptroller. 

Dr.  Edward  Hopke. 

Arthur  Fitzhugh,  Broadway  Bank. 

Edwin  J.  Kempton,  Lawyer. 

Dr.  John  Moffat. 

Frank  L.  Sniffen,  Guarantee  Trust  Co. 

Charles  H.  Young,  Lawyer. 

Chester  H.  Beebe,  School  of  Music  Director. 

William  L.  Perkins,  Lawyer. 

John  and  Edwin  Watkins,  Stationers. 

Fred  D.  Edsall,  Managing  Supt.  of  Brooklyn  Academy  of 
Music. 

Fred  C.  Williams,  Advertising  Agent. 

Orlando  H.  Jadwin,  Wholesale  Druggist. 

Lionel  Moses,  Architect. 

Charles  Brinkerhoff,  Brooklyn  Trust  Co. 

George  P.  Moffat,  Fidelity  Casualty  Co. 

Charles  C.  Miller,  Lawyer. 

Le  Roy  Harkness,  Lawyer. 


62  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

Harry  N.  Kellogg,  Chairman  of  American  Newspaper  Pub- 
lishing Co. 

Eben  Morford,  Supt.,  Home  for  Blind. 

Frank  Williams,  Steam  and  Water  Heating  Apparatus. 

Walter    Quackenbush,    Manager    of    the   North   Western 
Miller. 

Sidney  T.  Williamson,  Member  N.  Y.  Stock  Exchange. 

William  H.  Powell,  Vice.-Pres.  Atlantic  Terra  Gotta  Co. 

Clark  Howard  Great  Eastern  Casualty  Co. 

Arthur  W.  Forman,  Importer  of  Diamonds. 

Rev.  William  D.  Street. 

95  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York. 

My  dear  Miss  McCalvey, 

If  you  will  permit  me  to  say  so,  your  own  thoroughgoing 
spirit  of  fair  play  was  also  a  great  element  for  good  in  that 
formative  period. 

Edgar  B.  Moore. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  most  speakers  and  writers  on  teach- 
ers almost  unconsciously  use  the  feminine  pronouns,  e.g. 

Superintendent  Maxwell  tells  a  story  about  a  teacher  in 
an  East  Side  district.  She  was  going  home  from  school 
when  one  of  the  people  of  the  district  stopped  her  and  said, 
"  Miss  K.,  I  cannot  help  seeing  how  the  children  love  you. 
You  know  my  Bennie  and  Rosie?  They're  in  your  school. 
You  are  such  a  help  to  me  at  home.  Some  time  Bennie, 
he  say,  he  won't.  Then  he  quick  stop  and  he  say, '  All  right 
mamma.  Miss  K.  says  I  ought  to  obey  you.'  When  you 
stand  on  that  platform,  lady,  and  say  something,  it  is  just 
like  when  God  speaks.    Do  you  know  that  ?  " 

And  Mrs.  Clarence  Burns,  who  has  devoted  years  to  the 
cause  of  children,  says :  "  It  is  not  only  that  a  teacher's 
mental  equipment  should  enable  her  to  teach  in  the  schools 
— that,  on  the  face  of  it,  is  important — but  she  must  have, 
to  be  a  successful  educator,  a  teacher  in  the  best  sense  of 
•the  term,  a  personality  that  will  tend  to  uplift  those  who 
come  under  her  jurisdiction.    It  must  be  healthful,  capable 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK  63 

of  imparting  its  wholesomeness,  and  stability,  must  radiate 
strength  and  self-reliance  even  while  her  pupils  rely  upon 
her.  Her  personality,  whether  it  makes  for  good  or  ill,  is 
bound  to  obtrude  itself  upon  the  less  mature  nature  of  those 
with  whom  she  is  brought  in  contact.  One  of  her  pupils 
will  receive  one  impression  from  one  of  her  characteristics ; 
another  will  receive  another.  These,  as  the  single  drops  of 
water  make  the  ocean,  are  the  particles  of  "  which  char- 
acters are  formed." 

Some  may  contend  that  men  are  needed  for  the  more 
scientific,  more  exact  subjects.  But  a  study  of  the  "  De- 
partmental Programs"  in  the  Elementary  Schools  refutes 
that  contention.    For  instance : 

MALB    TEACHERS  WOMEN  TEACHERS 

Assigned  to  8B  Mixed.  Assigned  to  7A  Girls. 

Salary   $2400.00      Salary   $1440.00 

Periods  Periods 

Grammar   4      Mathematics    15 

Music    I      Grammar  9 

Penmanship    1      Music    i 

Reading    22      Study    4 

Study    4      Hygiene  and  SpelHng 4 

Hygiene  and  Physical  Train-  Music  and   Physical   Train- 
ing    I          ing  I 

Spelling  and  Physical  Train-  Spelling  and  Physical  Train- 
ing    I          ing  I 

Unassigned   I      Unassigned   3 

Miss  Clara  W writes :  "  On  Nov.  12,  1909,  I  visited 

P.  S. — Manhattan — a  school  consisting  only  of  pupils 
of  the  seventh  and  eighth  years — and  asked  the  principal, 
Mr.  ,  to  let  me  observe  his  best  classes  in  Mathe- 
matics. The  classes  to  which  I  was  sent  were  all  taught 
by  women  teachers  despite  the  fact  that  there  were  several 
men  teachers  of  Mathematics  in  the  school. 

Miss  Elizabeth  H.  Du  Bois,  in  a  letter  to  the  Evening 
Post,  Dec.  14,  1908,  says : 

"  The  following  is  a  bald  statement  of  facts  and  figures 
in  which  nothing  is  extenuated  or  aught  set  down  in  malice. 


64  EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

The  statistics  are  made  up  from  the  high  school  with  which 
the  writer  is  most  famiHar,  having  been  appointed  as  a 
teacher  there  in  September  1897,  the  year  in  which  the 
high  schools  were  created. 

With  these  exceptions,  then,  and  not  counting  the  annex 
(which  has  a  principal  and  staff  of  teachers  of  its  own), 
the  departments  of  English,  Latin,  French  and  German, 
history,  mathematics,  science,  drawing,  and  physical  train- 
ing, number  27  men  and  49  women  who  are  doing  full  work 
as  first  assistants,  assistants  or  junior  teachers.  450  hours 
of  teaching  per  week  are  assigned  to  the  2y  men;  941  to 
the  49  women.  The  average  for  each  man,  therefore,  is 
16  hours  and  40  minutes  per  week,  and  for  each  woman  19 
hours  and  12  minutes.  In  the  academic  departments  7 
women  and  2  men  are  doing  the  maximum  work,  25  hours 
per  week. 

Turning  now  to  the  matter  of  salaries,  the  sum  of  all 
the  salaries  paid  to  the  27  men,  divided  by  40  (because 
there  are  40  school  weeks  in  the  year),  is  $1,528.25,  mak- 
ing the  average  salary  per  week  paid  to  each  man  $56.60. 
In  the  same  way  the  sum  of  the  salaries  paid  to  the  49 
women,  divided  by  40,  is  $2,111.75,  making  the  average 
salary  per  week  paid  to  each  woman  $43.10.  So  that  each 
woman,  for  doing  two  and  a  half  hours'  more  work  per 
week  receives  $13.50  less  pay. 

In  the  different  departments  a  comparison  of  the  figures 
is  illuminating. 

In  the  English  department,  for  instance,  the  seven  women 
receive  $100  less  per  year  than  the  five  men.  In  the  Ger- 
man department,  the  six  women  receive  but  $200  more  than 
double  the  amount  paid  to  the  two  men.  And  in  the  Latin, 
although  the  head  of  this  department  is  a  woman,  and  there- 
fore receives  the  maximum  salary  for  a  woman  ($2500  per 
year),  the  five  women  receive  $1,470  less  than  the  5  men. 

Taking  into  account  training  and  experience  in  teaching, 
of  the  forty-two  women  (drawing  and  physical  training 
have  been  left  out)  eighteen  hold  a  bachelor's  degree,  nine  a 
master's,  two  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy,  thirteen 
have  no  academic  degree.  Of  the  25  men  teaching  academic 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK  65 

subjects,  sixteen  hold  the  bachelor's  degree,  six  the  mas- 
ter's, one  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy ;  two  have  no 
academic  degree.  In  experience,  the  average  for  the  men 
is  fifteen  years  and  ten  months,  for  the  women  eighteen 
years  and  four  months. 

It  cannot  be  said  of  the  high  schools,  as  it  sometimes  is 
of  the  lower  schools,  that  there  is  any  difference  in  the 
grade  of  work  done  by  the  men  and  the  women.  The  work 
done  by  the  men  and  the  women  in  the  high  schools  is 
identical  in  each  department,  the  same  grade  of  classes  is 
taught  by  the  two,  the  same  books  used,  the  same  ground 
covered.  The  only  difference  is  that  two  and  a  half  hours' 
more  of  teaching  per  week  is  done  by  each  woman  for 
$13.50  less  pay. 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  speak  of  the  proctoring  of  study- 
halls  and  of  the  girls'  and  boys'  lunch  rooms  at  recess,  for 
these  duties  are  shared  equally  by  men  and  women.  So, 
too,  the  care  of  books,  and  athletics,  assigned  to  certain 
men,  is  quite  off-set  by  the  care  of  the  literary  and  de- 
bating societies  and  the  various  art  clubs,  whose  meetings 
after  school  must  be  attended  by  a  teacher.  This  work  falls 
largely  on  the  women  teachers.  In  addition  to  which,  what 
is  known  as  "  escort  duty"  {i.e.,  clearing  the  various  floors 
of  loiterers  at  three  o'clock)  is  assigned  only  to  women; 
each  woman  remaining  for  this  purpose  ten  successive  days 
in  each  half  year. 

The  inequality  of  distribution,  however,  is  greatest  in  the 
physical  training  department.  There  are,  in  the  school, 
869  boys  and  1719  girls.  But,  although  the  girls  number 
twice  the  boys  (less  nineteen)  there  are  two  men  for  the 
boys  and  just  two  women  for  the  girls.  On  one  day  of  the 
week,  indeed,  the  two  women  together  teach  as  many  girls 
as  there  are  boys  in  the  whole  school.  The  sum  of  the 
salaries  paid  the  two  women  is  $3,640  per  year,  to  the  two 
men  $4,690.  So  that  for  almost  double  the  work  they  re- 
ceive $1,050  less  pay. 

"  These  statements  may  be  verified  by  consulting  the 
present  programme  of  the  school,  the  city  records  and 
those  of  the  Board  of  Education." 


66  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

And  another  teacher  of  experience  writes : 

"  Why  take  it  so  completely  for  granted  that  the  average 
man  teacher  can  do  more  efficient  work  than  the  average 
woman  teacher  in  developing  ability  to  use  knowledge  for 
life  purposes  ?  What  evidence  have;  we  for  this  except  the 
ancient  egotism  of  men  that  God  must,  by  some  hocus- 
pocus,  have  made  them  superior  beings  ? 

"  I  am  a  woman  of  much  experience  as  a  teacher  and 
supervisor.  I  have  had  both  women  and  men  teachers 
under  my  supervision,  and  I  have  to  admit,  I  started  out 
expecting  to  find  men  far  more  proficient  along  just  the 
lines  emphasized  by  Mr.  R.  My  disillusionment  has  been 
complete,  and  I  affirm,  from  much  careful  observation,  that 
men  teachers,  as  a  rule,  not  only  fall  far  short  of  women  in 
capacity  for  discipline  among  adolescent  girls  and  boys, 
but  also  in  skill  in  arousing  genuine  mental  activity.  I  do 
not  claim  that  this  is  due  to  any  difference  inherent  in  sex. 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say  as  to  this.  I  do  say  that  as  far  as 
my  own  experience  and  observation  go,  and  these  have  been 
somewhat  extended,  the  average  woman  teacher  does  better 
work — including  in  "  better  "  the  ability  to  develop  power 
of  thinking  in  the  upper  grades  than  the  average  man 
teacher. 

"  Let  him  who  doubts  go  as  an  unimportant  stranger  and 
visit  the  classes  of  women  and  men  in  the  upper  grades, 
high  schools,  and  training  schools  of  New  York,  and  some 
surprises  will  await  him  or  her,  concerning  the  superior 
power  of  men  teachers  for  older  scholars. 

"  This,  like  the  rib  story,  awaits  demonstration. 

Frances  Isabel  Davenport. 

Brooklyn,  Dec.  30. 


CHAPTER  V 

ARE  MEN  TEACHERS  NEEDED  FOR  THEIR  MANLY  INFLUENCE? 

Those  who  claim  that  men  teachers  are  needed  in  the 
elementary  schools  must  prove : 

(i)  That  the  New  York  City  boys  who  are  taught  by 
men  in  the  elementary  schools  are  superior  in  education, 
culture  and  manliness  to  those  taught  by  women ; 

(2)  That  the  men  in  New  York  City  who  are  graduates 
from  elementary  schools  having  men  teachers  are  far  supe- 
rior in  education,  culture,  and  manliness  to  the  Up-State 
men,  or  men  from  Indiana,  California,  and  other  states 
having  no  men  teachers  in  their  elementary  schools. 

If  this  superiority  be  proven,  it  will  go  far  .toward  justi- 
fying the  extra  millions  that  have  been  spent  in  order  to 
give  the  New  York  boy  some  men  teachers  in  the  elemen- 
tary schools. 

We  are  told  that  these  men  teachers  are  needed  for  their 
"  manly  influence,"  and  to  serve  as  "  models  "  for  our  boys. 

Supt.  Maxwell,  in  his  Tenth  Annual  Report,  says : 

"  Some  men  teachers  are  and  should  be  employed  in  the 
higher  grades  for  three  principal  reasons : 

(a)  "  That  the  pupils  may  come  under  the  influence  of 
the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  that  particularly  char- 
acterize men,  as  well  as  under  th^  influence  of  the  intellect- 
ual and  moral  qualities  that  particularly  characterize 
women ; 

(b)  "  That  the  pupils  may  be  made  to  feel  that  culture 
and  refinement  are  not  the  peculiar  province  of  women,  but 
should  also  be  striven  for  and  poss-essed  by  men; 

(c)  "  That  the  larger  boys  may  have  guidance  and  lead- 
ership in  athletic  sports." 

One  naturally  asks,  what  are  the  intellectual  and  moral 
qualities  that  particularly  characterize  men,  and  those  other 

67 


68  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

intellectual  and  moral  qualities  that  particularly  character- 
ize women? 

Dr.  Wm.  T.  Manning,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  in  his 
Baccalaureate  address  to  Columbia  University,  discussing" 
the  question  of  larger  attendance  of  women  than  men  at 
church  said : 

"  In  the  first  place,  men  as  a  class  are  not  more  intel- 
lectual than  women ;  but  rather  the  reverse  is  true ;  and  in 
the  second  place,  history  shows  that  the  higher  people  rise 
in  the  scale  of  intellect,  the  more  truly  religious  they  be- 
come. 

"  The  disparity  between  men  and  women  in  religious 
interests  is  due  in  large  part  to  the  fact  that  on  the  whole 
women  lead  higher  lives  than  men  do.  Their  lives  are  less 
selfish,  less  hardened  by  contact  with  the  business  of  the 
world,  less  under  the  power  of  certain  of  the  grosser  sins." 

The  N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce,  May  13,  1909,  said 
editorially :  "  In  some  grades  and  branches  masculine 
minds  of  the  best  order  and  training  are  eminently  desirable 
to  make  the  education  what  it  should  be  " ;  but  Professor 
Smith  of  London  says  that  every  year  seems  to  show  with 
increasing  conclusiveness  that  "  there  is  in  the  great  mass 
of  cases  a  practical  equality  in  male  and  female  minds. 

Again,  Supt.  Maxwell  says  in  his  Tenth  Annual  Report: 
"  At  that  age,  however,  at  which  boys  begin  to  extend  their 
intellectual  horizon  beyond  the  circle  of  childish  amuse- 
ment, it  is  pre-eminently  necessary  that  they  should  have 
an  opportunity  of  acquiring  thro'  imitation  the  character- 
istics of  men  as  well  as  the  characteristics  of  women ;  of 
following  the  example  of  men  of  character,  as  well  as  the 
example  of  women;  and  of  seeing  in  men  as  well  as  in 
women  illustrations  of  culture  and  refinement." 

In  a  recent  report  made  by  the  Male  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion of  this  city  regarding  the  necessity  for  men  teachers, 
this  sentence  appears :  "  And  in  this  connection  we  plead 
for  men  who  are  men." 

I  am  sure  that  we  all  agree  that  men  who  are  men  will 
be  welcome  as  teachers  in  our  public  schools,  to  serve  as 
models  for  our  boys ;  but,  I  believe,  also,  that  you  will  agree 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  69 

with  me  that  the  man  who  beHeves  that  it  would  be  unmanly 
to  pay  his  sister  the  same  salary  as  is  paid  to  him  when 
she  does  the  same  work  is  not  the  type  of  man  we  want  in 
our  public  schools,  is  not  the  sort  of  man  we  want  our  sons 
and  our  brothers  to  imitate. 

Science  has  proven  that  a  stream  will  not  rise  higher 
than  its  source.  If  the  boys  in  our  public  schools  had  no 
other  models  of  honor,  culture  and  manliness  than  the  male 
teachers  in  their  fight  for  simple  justice,  the  future  male 
citizen  of  this  city  would  be  a  sorry  type. 

That  the  tactics  of  these  male  teachers  have  often  been 
despicable,  deceitful  and  dishonorable,  the  following  illus- 
trations will  show: 

Having  found  that  their  plea  for  an  increase  of  salaries 
for  themselves  had  no  friends  except  a  few  members  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  and  the  Board  of  Superintendents, 
while  practically  the  whole  public  was  agreed  that  the 
women  teachers  were  poorly  paid ;  and  knowing  that  the 
Women  Teachers'  bill,  carrying  a  minimum  salary  of  $720, 
had  passed  the  Legislature  three  times  and  had  been  unani- 
mously endorsed  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen  three  times; 
knowing  also  that  Superintendent  Maxwell  in  his  Ninth 
Annual  Report  had  recommended  a  similar  minimum 
salary ;  knowing  furthermore  that  President  McGowan  had 
notified  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  that  he 
would  oppose  all  increases  of  salary  until  the  salaries  of  the 
women  teachers  were  increased,  the  Association  of  Man 
Teachers  and  Principals  in  May,  1909,  passed  a  resolution 
recommending  to  the  Board  of  Education  that  the  initial 
salary  of  a  woman  teacher  be  $720.  The  women  teachers 
resented  this  action  as  a  deliberate  attempt  on  the  part  of 
these  men  to  pretend  to  the  public  an  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  the  women,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  this  very  asso- 
ciation was  not  only  organized  for  the  purpose  of  opposing 
the  women  teachers,  but  that  it  had  been  continuously  ac- 
tive and  maliciously  bitter  in  its  opposition  to  this  day. 

Mr.  Maxwell  in  his  last  Annual  Report  says :  "  I  am 
also  of  opinion  that  more  systematic  and  detailed  instruc- 
tion is  needed  to  the  end  that  all  the  children  of  this  great 


70  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

city  may  not  leave  its  public  schools  without  clearly  defined 
notions  of  a  right,  of  a  duty,  of  virtue,  of  truth  and  falsity, 
of  right  and  wrong,  of  honesty,  and  dishonesty,  of  the  bind" 
ing  force  of  contracts,  and  of  respect  for  law." 

One  of  the  most  desirable  attributes  in  man  or  woman 
is  truth.  But  Mr.  W.  a  male  teacher  opposing  the  Equal 
Pay  bill  in  the  Senate  Committee  on  Cities  in  February, 
1907,  stated  that  of  all  the  teachers  in  the  system  "  only 
a  pitiful  five  per  cent."  were  men ;  though  the  figures  in 
Dr.  Maxwell's  latest  previous  annual  report  showed  that 
eleven  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  were  men. 

Another  desirable  attribute  is  respect  for  the  rights  of 
others.  But  many  women  teachers  have  been  hampered  and 
troubled  by  the  oppressive  tactics  of  their  male  superior 
officers.  This  is  attested  in  the  following  letters  received 
by  me: 

Received  May  i,  1907:    "  In  several  schools  here,  notably 

School  No.  the  principal  has  practically  coerced  the 

teachers  into  signing  this  opposition  paper.  (A  petition 
against  the  White  Bill.)  He  spoke  for  over  half  an  hour, 
and  in  the  end,  as  one  teacher  said  to  her  sister,  '  I  felt  if 
I  didn't  sign  it,  things  would  be  very  unpleasant  for  me.' " 

Another : 

"  The  enclosed  notes  are  copies  of  ones  circulated  in  P. 

S.  this  week.     They  were  given  to  me  by  a  teacher 

who  is  protesting,   but  who   fears  lest   Mr.  should 

harm  her  professionally.  All  matter  concerning  the  Inter- 
borough  is  concealed,  and  therefore,  I,  as  a  delegate  from 
P.  S. have  been  asked  to  notify  you." 

Another : 

" woman  in  the  departmental  system  of would 

like  very  much  to  join,  but  is  afraid  to  do  so,  lest  it  may 
serve  as  a  pretext  to  force  her  out  of  her  position  in  favor 
of  the  men.  She  is  an  exceptionally  superior  teacher,  and 
I  think  if  you  could  give  me  some  assurance  that  nothing 
of  that  kind  would  result,  that  she  would  be  glad  to  join. 
She  has  been  thoroughly  intimidated  by  a  former  princi- 
pal:' 

May  I,  1907,  " told  me  that  her  aunt a  teacher 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  71 

in  P.  S.  said  that  the  boys  in  the High  School 

are  writing  notes  to  the  Mayor  as  taxpayers  urging  him  to 
refuse  to  sign  the  *  White  Bill.'  " 

Jan.  10,  1910.  "  On  Friday,  Miss ,  the  head  of  de- 
partment of  P.  S.  ,  Manhattan,  called  to  see  me  in 

regard  to  the  I.  A.  W.  T.    As  you  are  aware,  the  principal 

of  that  school,  Mr. ,  has  said  repeatedly  that  there  shall 

be  no  member  of  his  force  a  member  of  our  Association. 
No  later  than  last  week,  he  caused  the  teachers  to  sign  as 
to  whether  or  not,  they  were  members  of  said  association. 

So  Miss and  five  associates,  wish  to  join  unknown  to 

him.  Please  explain  to  the  secretary,  Miss  Ennis,  that 
under  no  condition  can  literature  be  sent  to  the  school,  as  it 
will  be  confiscated  and  the  ofifenders  punished." 

Do  we  want  our  boys  to  imitate  such  men  teachers  as : 

Mr.  X. — ^bachelor,  receiving  eight  hundred  and  forty 
dollars  a  year  more  than  woman  teacher  of  same  grade  of 
boys,  who  said  to  woman  he  was  entertaining  at  dinner,  "  I 
couldn't  be  taking  you  and  other  teachers  out  and  giving 
you  a  good  time,  if  I  were  getting  a  '  Woman's  Wage.' " 

Mr.  Y.  who  said :  "  There  is  a  little  Miss  *  Y ' — now. 
That  gives  me  an  additional  claim  to  the  position." 

"  I  said :  '  If  I  were  your  wife  and  you  held  me  or  my 
baby  up  as  a  plea  for  favor  or  salary,  I'd  leave  you  and 
support  myself  and  baby.'  Does  a  doctor  with  a  baby  ask 
a  larger  fee  than  a  doctor  with  no  baby?  Does  a  lawyer 
present  his  family  as  ground  for  larger  fee?  Why  should 
male  teachers  be  the  only  people — either  in  professional  or 
laboring — classes  to  urge  their  family  responsibilities  as 
excuses  for  special  salary  favors?  Consider  the  matter  in 
another  light.  Think  of  the  woman  applicant  for  this  posi- 
tion. She  is  teaching  in  both  day  school  and  night  school 
to  support  herself  and  assist  in  the  care  and  support  of  her 
family  including  a  sister  hopelessly  ill  of  tuberculosis.  She 
has  to  be  an  'old  maid.'  She  can  have  no  child  to  grow  up 
and  assist  her  in  her  old  age." 

Mr.  Y.  "  Well,  I  have  a  sister  who  is  an  old  maid  and 
I'm  glad  of  it.    She  helps  us." 

Mr.  A.  who  spoke  to  me  one  day  with  his  mouth  so 


'^2  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

offensively  dirty  with  tobacco  that  I  had  to  turn  away  in 
in  disgust. 

The  New  York  Evening  Sun  in  an  editorial  Feb.  27, 
1907,  wrote :  "  The  representatives  of  the  male  teachers  of 
this  city  did  not  cut  much  of  a  figure  at  Albany  yesterday. 
Poor  Mr.  Wellnesley,  he  could  not  help  it.  There  was  a 
suggestion  of  the  dog  in  the  manger  when  he  argued  as  fol- 
lows. 'This  bill  says  that  women  teachers  shall  have  equal 
pay  for  equal  work,  but  it  says  nothing  to  prevent  a  woman 
being  able  to  get  more  than  a  man.'     (Loud  laughter.) 

" '  We  men  teachers  want  to  be  protected  so  we  can't  be 
reduced.'  But  for  true  frankness  Mr.  Cort  surpassed  all 
his  fellow  protestants.  He  did  not  mince  matters.  '  If 
this  bill  becomes  law,'  he  said,  '  it  will  defer  the  increase 
in  the  men's  pay.'  In  other  words,  the  self-seeking  male 
persons  opposed  what  their  opponents  called  a  simple  act 
of  justice  on  the  ground  that  it  would  tend  to  prevent  the 
commission  of  a  further  injustice." 

On  the  occasion  of  our  Mass  Meeting  at  Carnegie  Hall, 
the  Male  Teachers  had  handbills  distributed  in  front  of  the 
building  which  the  Irish-American  of  Dec.  24,  1909,  re- 
ferred to  thus : 

"  If  men  teachers  in  some  combination  are  responsible 
for  the  trashy  circular  handed  to  persons  going  to  Carnegie 
Hall,  they  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves.  After  some 
two  or  three  false  statements  as  to  what  the  women  demand, 
the  circular  winds  up  with  the  following  rubbish: 

"  *  How  is  your  bread  buttered.  The  cat's  paw  pulled 
the  monkey's  chestnuts  from  the  lire.    Who's  the  cat? 

"  *  Who  is  being  buncoed  ? 

"  *  How  many  guesses  will  it  take  to  explain  this  ?  * 

"  It  will  not  take  many  guesses  to  explain  that  the  City 
of  New  York  is  being  buncoed  by  some  of  the  men  teachers, 
if  this  is  a  sample  of  the  stuff  their  brains  are  made  of. 
The  movement  for  equal  pay  will  not  be  retarded  by  such 
contemptible  asininity. 

"  The  women  teachers'  claim  is  based  upon  justice.  So 
long  as  their  work  measures  up  to  the  same  extent  and 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  73 

efficiency  as  the  work  of  the  men,  there  is  no  reason  for 
penaHzing  them  by  a  lower  salary." 

But  probably  the  most  deadly  danger  to  the  moral  nature 
of  our  boys  is  that  which  has  been  exposed  to  the  public 
recently — the  dishonorable  practices  of  some  men  principals 
and  teachers  in  connection  with  athletic  competitions.  Sup- 
erintendent Maxwell  reports:  " From  such  investiga- 
tions as  I  have  been  able  to  make,  I  find  that  from  about 
fifty  school  boys  were  certified  who  should  not  have  been 
certified.  I  am  fully  convinced  that  this  certification  was 
the  result  of  nothing  worse  than  carelessness.  There  are 
some  instances,  however,  in  which  the  explanation  oflPered 
by  the  principal  is  not  satisfactory  to  me.  I  feel,  there- 
fore, that  this  is  a  matter  which  should  be  investigated  by 
a  committee  of  the  Board  of  Education " 

Globe,  Mar.  24,  1910:  "Principals  from  about  fifty 
schools  have  been  before  a  sub-committee  of  the  Committee 
on  Elementary  Schools  to  explain  their  actions  in  certify- 
ing ineligible  boys  as  eligible.  When  it  is  considered  that 
only  about  100  schools  competed,  in  the  elementary  school 
indoor  championship  games,  the  seriousness  of  the  scandal 
is  apparent. 

"  As  has  been  intimated,  the  seriousness  of  the  situation 
lies  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  a  few  school  trophies  have 
been  withheld  as  in  the  revelation  of  the  ethical  standards 
that  obtain  among  some  of  the  principals.  For  in  certain 
instances  it  seems  the  principals,  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
pupils,  permitted  ineligibles  to  compete.  The  effect  of  such 
an  example  on  the  future  moral  standarcjs  of  the  pupils  is 
obvious." 

The  inquiry,  it  transpires,  was  granted.  One  district 
superintendent,  in  speaking  of  the  results  of  the  investiga- 
tion, said : 

"  The  irregularities  seem  to  have  been  pretty  general  all 
along  the  line,  and  while  in  many  instances  it  may  be 
explained  away,  in  at  least  two  cases  there  was  direct  con- 
nivance on  the  part  of  the  principal  in  permitting  ineligible 
boys  to  compete.     If  they  are  going  to  teach  ethics  and 


74  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

morality  in  the  schools,  it  would  seem  they  might  at  least 
follow  their  own  precepts." 

"  The  athletes,  many  of  whom  have  not  yet  reached  the 
age  of  discretion,  entered  the  contests  because  they  were 
certified  by  the  teachers  and  principals,  and  won  prizes. 
Then  they  found  that  they  were  ineligible  to  compete,  and 
were  forced  to  return  the  prizes.  The  effect  is  most  un- 
fortunate. As  one  of  the  most  prominent  teachers  of  the 
city  said  yesterday :  '  For  goodness  sake,  keep  at  the  evils 
in  schoolboy  athletics.  Of  what  possible  use  all  this  athletic 
movement,  if  the  moral  fibre  of  the  boys  is  to  be  weakened 
by  the  knowledge  and  example  of  the  moral  weakness  of 
their  principals  and  teachers ! '  " 

The  Globe,  of  March  23,  1910,  published  an  example  of 
another  kind  of  moral  astigmatism : 

"  Charles  Kothe,  a  teacher  in  Public  School  29,  East 
126th  Street,  and  Justice  Zeller  in  the  Children's  Court, 
disagreed  yesterday  on  the  subject  of  psychology.  The 
justice  threatened  to  stir  the  Board  of  Education  into 
activity,  and  criticized  the  principal  of  the  school. 

"  Several  weeks  ago  Walter  Uhl,  a  pupil  in  class 

was   arrested,   paroled    and,   ,   principal   of  the 

school,  and  the  teacher  were  instructed  to  inform  the  court 
as  to  the  boy's  parole  record.  A  few  days  ago  the  principal 
reported  like  this :  "  The  boy's  attendance  is  poor,  and 
lessons  very  poor." 

Justice  Zeller  asked  for  the  teacher's  report,  and  got 
several  cards,  indicating  a  fine  record  for  Uhl,  who  was 
pronounced  "perfect"  in  his  studies.  The  justice  sub- 
poenaed K ,  when  he  would  not  respond  to  a  request  to 

appear,  and  in  court  Justice  Zeller  yesterday  showed  K • 

a  card  concerning  Uhl.  Kothe  admitted  none  of  the  entries 
on  the  cards  was  correct,  and  Zeller  wanted  to  know  why. 

"  I  made  those  entries  for  psychological  reasons,"  K • 

said.  "  I  gave  the  boy  good  marks  because  I  did  not  want 
to  inculcate  in  his  mind  any  antagonism." 

"  I  am  astonished  at  this  revelation,"  said  Justice  Zeller. 
"  I  am  going  to  transmit  these  papers  to  the  Board  of 
Education,  and  I  want  to  say  to  you  also,  Mr,  Principal, 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  75 

that  your  conduct  in  this  case  has  been  very  unsatisfactory 
to  the  court.  I'll  see  whether  these  teachers  certify  to 
reports  correctly  or  incorrectly  with  the  connivance  of  their 
principals.    This  is  a  disgrace  to  our  system  of  education." 

And  the  following  from  the  Eagle  of  Feb.  24,  1910, 
shows  another  type  of  man  whom  we  do  not  want  our  boys 
to  imitate: 

"  The  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  gives  out  some  re- 
markable facts  in  connection  with  the  case  of  M J. 

D ,  principal  of  Public  School  No.  ,  Manhattan, 

who  was  yesterday  fined  by  the  Board  of  Education  $500 
for  absenting  himself  from  the  school  and  devoting  his 
time  as  a  commissioner  in  condemnation  proceedings. 
Controller  Metz  maintained  that  the  penalty  was  inadequate 
and  he  declared  that  the  board  would  agree  with  him  if 
all  the  facts  were  brought  out  in  the  case. 

Abraham  Stern,  chairman  of  the  committee  on  elementary 
schools,  objected  to  Mr.  Metz's  proposition.  He  said  there 
were  no  more  facts  to  be  considered,  because  Principal 
D had  admitted  the  charges. 

Aceording  to  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  the  fol- 
lowing facts  were  not  considered  by  the  committee : 

1.  That  D for  years  falsely  certified  his  school  pay- 
roll. 

2.  That  he  made  false  statements  to  the  president 
denying  the  absences  that  he  now  admits. 

3.  That  he  made  false  statements  to  the  press. 

4.  That  he  was  fined  one-thirtieth  of  the  amount  of  the 
fees  earned  from  his  double  relations. 

5.  That  he  falsely  certified  to  street  opening  p^y  receipts. 

6.  That  he  admits  having  received  451  full  payments 
of  $10,  when  he  should  have  received  one-half,  $5  had  he 
not  certified  falsely. 

7.  That  Judge  Dowling  dismissed  and  rebuked  him  for 
the  worst  form  of  abuses  disclosed  in  street  opening  pro- 
ceedings. 

The  bureau's  statement  continues. 

"  With  respect  to  Judge  Bowling's  dismissal  of  D 

December  15,  last  (as  recorded  on  page  1099  of  the  Law 


^6  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Journal  for  December  17)   the  following  facts  are  given 
for  the  first  time: 

"  '  Commissioner  D ,   L F ,   and   P G. 

C ,  acting  as  commission  concurred  on  awards  for  sixty- 
two  pieces  of  property,   aggregating  $245,013.73.     Later 

D and    F agreed    upon  preliminary    awards    at 

$328,356.25   for  the  same  pieces  of  property,  and  finally 
recommended  for  those  same  pieces  of  property  $256,649. 

This  '  boosting '  of  awards  Commission  C objected  to 

and  made  a  minority  report  which  led  Justice  Dowling  to 

dismiss  and  rebuke  D and  F and  to  throw  the  case 

out.    D 's  fees  for  this  proceeding  alone  will  be,  unless 

cut,   nearly   seven   times   his   fine,    and,    besides,   the   city 
must  spend  several  thousands  more  on  new  proceedings.' 

"  At  yesterday's  meeting  Commissioner  Stern  maintained 
that  the  Board  of  Education  could  not  take  cognizance  of 
the  conduct  of  a  school  principal  on  condemnation  proceed- 
ings. Commissioner  Metz  maintained  that  the  Board  of 
Education  was  duly  bound  to  take  cognizance  of  oflfenses 
against  public  welfare  that  were  a  matter  of  court  record, 
especially  when  the  school  principal  concerned  had  not  only 
falsely  certified  to  school  payrolls  and  diverted  school  time, 
but  had  perjured  himself  by  making  a  false  affidavit  to  the 
Board  of  Education  himself  regarding  his  connection  with 
condemnation  proceedings." 

Commenting  on  this  case,  the  Globe  of  Feb.  24,  1910, 
said :  "  Efforts  were  made  by  Commissioners  Metz  and 
McGowan  to  have  a  further  investigation  made  by  the  com- 
mittee on  elementary  schools  of  the  charges  preferred 
against  Principal  M E.  D of  P.  S.  ,  Manhat- 
tan, in  connection  with  condemnation  proceedings  when  the 
report  of  the  committee  on  elementary  schools  was  pre- 
sented to  the  board  at  its  meeting  yesterday,  but  without 
success.  The  board  approved  the  recommendation  of  the 
committee  that  Mr.  Devlin  be  fined  $500. 

"  In  its  report  the  committee  stated  that  the  particular 
charge  was  that  Mr.  Devlin  had  been  absent  from  school 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  77 

on  seventy-nine  occasions  between  January,  1906,  and 
Sept.  30,  1909,  attending  such  proceedings,  and  that  he  had 
failed  to  note  his  absence  on  the  payrolls.  It  reviewed  his 
excellent  record  in  the  schools  and  cited  that  in  view  of  that 
record  and  of  the  fact  that  he  had  pleaded  guilty  ^nd  that 
it  was  his  first  offense,  the  fine  of  $500  was  regarded  as 
adequate  punishment. 

"  Mr.  Metz  declared  that  he  believed  that  this  was  an 
instance  where  severe  action  ought  to  be  taken.  There  had 
been  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  condemnation  proceedings, 
and  when  a  man  in  the  employ  of  the  city  was  involved 
an  example  ought  to  be  made  of  him.  It  was  a  bad  prece- 
dent to  make  the  punishment  so  light. 

"  Those  members  of  the  board  who  were  not  members  of 
the  committee  which  had  heard  the  trial,  explained  Mr. 
McGowan,  were  in  ignorance  of  many  of  the  facts  and  were 
therefore  not  good  judges.  He  suggested  that  an  oppor- 
tunity might  be  given  to  the  members  who  so  desired  to 
go  over  the  evidence. 

"  Chairman  Stern  of  the  committee  on  elementary  schools 
explained  that  it  would  do  no  good,  as  there  was  no  evi- 
dence. The  charges  had  been  read  and  Mr.  D had  ad- 
mitted them.  They  were  as  given  in  the  report,  and  as 
they  had  been  proved  it  was  for  the  committee  to  determine 

the  punishment.  In  doing  so  it  had  considered  Mr.  D 's 

excellent  record. 

"  Mr.  Metz  wanted  to  know  if  the  'committee  had  con- 
sidered Mr.  D 's  affidavit  that  he  was  not  in  the  employ 

of  the  city,  and  Mr.  Stern  said  that  it  had  and  that  the  affi- 
davit was  correct,  but  it  was  not  included  in  the  charges 
as  preferred  and  the  committee  could  not  have  considered 
it  if  it  had  so  desired. 

"  I  believe,"  replied  Mr.  Metz,  "  that  there  ought  to  be 
a  fuller  investigation.  All  related  facts  ought  to  be  taken 
into  consideration." 

"This  brought  Mr.  Stern  to  his  feet  with  a  severe  ar- 
raignment of  the  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research.  There 
were  certain  matters  which  they  as  members  of  the  board 
were  not  required  to  investigate.     This  was  not  a  legisla- 


78  EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

tive  investigating  committee,  and  it  was  not  its  duty  to  in- 
vestigate outside  matters.  The  powers  of  the  committee 
were  Hmited  to  the  consideration  of  the  charges  enumer- 
ated in  the  charter,  and  all  facts  material  to  the  charges 
had  been  considered  and  investigated.  If  it  was  to  be  the 
policy  to  go  outside  and  investigate  what  teachers,  princi- 
pals, and  commissioners!  did  outside  of  their  particular  lines 
of  work  it  would  be  a  strange  proceeding. 

"  He  characterized  the  statements  being  circulated  by  the 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  as  maliciously  misleading. 
That  bureau,  he  said,  was  probably  acting  from  good  mo- 
tives, and  it  ought  to  consider  that  other  boards  also  acted 
from  similar  motives.  The  statements  made  concealed  part 
of  the  truth.    For  instance,  it  was  stated  that  on  fifty-nine 

occasions  Mr.  D received  pay  in  two  outside  positions 

at  the  same  time.  The  impression  was  given  that  this  was 
in  school  hours,  but  there  was  no  evidence  to  show  whether 
it  was  or  not.  What  difference  did  it  make  to  the  board  how 
many  jobs  he  had  if  they  were  not  within  school  hours? 

"  Another  allegation  was  that  447  times  he  was  recorded 
as  being  at  commissions  at  3  p.  m.,  giving  the  impression 
that  he  was  neglecting  his  school  work.  The  facts  pre- 
sented were  that  he  was  recorded  wrongly,  for  he  had  re- 
ported at  ten  minutes  or  quarter  after  three,  but  he  was 
recorded  as  being  on  duty  at  three  and  had  neglected  to 
have  the  record  corrected.  These  were  the  type  of  ma- 
licious allegations  which  were  being  circulated. 

"  The  committee  had  extended  to  the  bureau  the  unprece- 
dented courtesy  of  having  a  representative  present.  He 
attended  the  first  hearing,  which  was  adjourned,  but  at  the 
second  he  did  not  appear  until  the  trial  was  over.    As  to 

the  affidavit  that  Mr.  D was  not  an  employee  of  the 

city,  Mr.  D was  correct.    Were  the  city  not  to  pay  him 

and  were  he  to  sue  he  would  have  to  sue  the  board  and  not 
the  city  under  a  ruling  of  the  court. 

"  The  allegations  came  down  to  those  seventy-nine  times 
he  was  away  during  school  hours,  and  it  was  upon  them 
that  the  fine  was  computed.  Allowing  two  to  three  hours 
for  each  of  the  sessions,  it  would  be  seen  that  the  fine  was 


Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor, 

Mayor  of  the   City  of   New   York. 
Chairmaj*  of   Brooklyn   Mass   Meeting   Held   by   Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers,  March  6,  1908.     He  Was 
THEN   Justice,   Appellate    Division,   Supreme    Court. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK  79 

much  in  excess  of  the  time  lost  to  the  city  by  the  principal. 
The  statements  of  the  bureau  were  made  for  the  purpose 
of  influencing  the  members  wrongly.  Mr.  Devlin's  long 
connection  with  the  system,  his  high  standing  and  excellent 
record  must  be  considered.  He  had  made  a  misstep  and 
had  admitted  it.  The  punishment  was  sufficient  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  the  evil. 

"  It  was  a  principle  for  which  he  was  contending,  Mr. 

Metz  declared.     Mr.  D 's  record  on  commissions  had 

been  traced  back  for  years  and  he  had  been  misstepping 
during  that  time.  Every  one  knows  that  appointments  on 
commissions  depend  upon  pull  and  a  man  ought  to  be  above 
that  or  not  be  a  principal.  He  believed  the  punishment 
should  be  nothing  short  of  dismissal. 

"  Mr.  McGowan  said  that  Mr.  Stern's  review  of  the 
facts  had  made  the  members  acquainted  with  the  details. 
He  did  not  regard  the  statements  of  the  Bureau  of  Munici- 
pal Research  as  misleading,  but  as  setting  forth  what  they 
had  found  to  be  the  facts.    The  report  was  then  adopted." 

Can  we  expect  the  boys  brought  up  under  the  influence 

of  Mr.  D to  have  a  fine  sense  of  truth  and  a  high  ideal 

of  honor? 

Is  it  not  conceivable  that  such  loose  notions  of  truth  and 
honesty  and  honor  in  our  public  schools  must  inevitably 
taint  the  whole  nation?  If  our  boys  and  girls  are  reared 
in  such  an  atmosphere  can  we  hope  for  better  things  from 
them? 

And  again  I  quote: 

"  Thieving  weighers  of  the  Sugar  Trust."  There  has 
been  so  much  debauchery,  such  glaring  dishonesty  in  pub- 
lic officials,  that  we  come  to  hail  a  man  with  decent  in- 
stincts as  a  prodigy  of  virtue!  Is  it  not  a  shocking  com- 
ment upon  our  institutions  ?  Somebody  will  be  wanted  who 
will  hang  a  few  public  "  grafters."  We  shall  have  a  na- 
tional vigilance  committee.  The  same  processes  that  were 
found  to  be  most  salutary  in  San  Francisco  during  the 
early  50's  of  the  last  century  will  be  tried  again  in  every 
large  city  of  this  land !  There  will  not  be  any  temporizing. 
Short  weight  will  get  a  "  short  shrift."    Stealing  from  the 


8o  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

general  government  will  be  placed  upon  the  same  plane  as 
stealing  from  one's  butcher  or  baker. 

"  By  that  time  we  shall  have  reached  a  point  at  which 
every  official  tried  and  convicted  of  robbing  the  people  of 
the  United  States  will  be  branded  in  some  indelible  man- 
ner. As  Anna  Katherine  Green  suggests  in  her  latest 
"  thriller,"  this  brand  ought  to  be  put  upon  the  cheek. 
There  it  could  be  seen  of  all  men. 

"  How  much  better  than  a  perfunctory  punishment  1 " 
• — Julius  Chambers,  Walks  and  Talks,  Jan.  ii,  1910. 


CHAPTER   VI 

ARE    MEN   TEACHERS    NEEDED   TO   PREVENT  FEMINIZATION? 

It  is  sometimes  claimed  that  men  are  needed  to  prevent 
the  feminization  of  our  schools. 

This  claim  has  been  made  by  Herr  Munsterberg,  Alfred 
Mosely  and  other  foreigners  whose  opinions  must  be  dis- 
counted on  account  of  their  lack  of  long  and  familiar  ac- 
quaintance with  us  and  our  institutions. 

This  claim  is  also  made  by  some  male  teachers  and  their 
friends,  whose  opinions  must  be  considered  in  the  light  of 
their  great  desire  to  secure  the  appointment  of  more  men 
tq  teaching  positions.  Their  condition  is  like  that  of  a  ven- 
dor of  jet  beads,  for  instance,  who  has  an  over-stocked 
market,  and  is  naturally  anxious  to  create  a  demand  for 
jet  beads.  In  opposition  to  their  opinion,  I  quote  some 
American  authorities.  The  first  is  Prof.  John  Dewey,  who 
as  an  American  and  a  scholar,  is  worthy  of  greater  consid- 
eration than  any  one  hitherto  mentioned. 

Prof.  Dewey  was  head  of  the  Department  of  Philosophy 
at  the  University  of  Chicago  from  the  foundation  of  that 
institution.  Five  years  ago  he  accepted  the  chair  of  phi- 
losophy at  Columbia.  Pie  is  one  of  the  best  known  Eng- 
lish-speaking teachers  of  his  subject,  and  is  Past  President 
of  the  American  Philosophic  and  Psychological  Associa- 
tion. 

Only  recently  William  L.  Felter,  head  of  the  Girls'  High 
School  in  Brooklyn,  returned  from  a  trip  abroad  with  dark 
and  gloomy  views  on  the  American  School  System.  The 
press  quotes  him  as  saying :  "  Too  many  women  teachers 
are  at  the  root  of  a  large  part  of  the  evils  of  our  public 
schools,"  he  asserted  sadly.  "  I  thought  so  once  and  now 
I  know  it — I  have  been  talking  with  Alfred  Mosely.  The 
preponderance  of  women  teachers  is  swiftly  and  surely 
feminizing  our  boys." 

8i 


82  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Prof.  Dewey,  who  has  happened  to  make  a  point  of  lec- 
turing on  women  in  the  public  schools,  was  shown  Mr. 
Felter's  published  convictions.  And  Prof.  Dewey  smiled — 
very  dryly — and  said: 

"  There  is  no  more  efficient  body  of  workers  in  America 
than  the  great  army  of  its  women  teachers.  They  femi- 
nize boys?  Nonsense!  Where  are  our  effeminate  boys,  if 
you  please  ?  " 

"  I  wish,"  he  remarked  by  way  of  casual  beginning,  "  that 
I  could  happen  on  some  of  these  effeminate  school  boys. 
Somehow,  I've  never  been  able  to  discover  them.  Strangely 
enough,  the  people  who  lament  their  ascendency,  don't  seem 
to  produce  the  article.  Now,  I  am  so  constituted  that  when- 
ever I  examine  any  sort  of  new  theory,  I  want  proofs  to 
back  me  up.  Where  are  they?  Where  are  our  effeminate 
boys  ? 

"  The  notion  that  our  splendid  women  teachers  are  mak- 
ing mollycoddles  of  their  boy  students  is  utterly  absurd. 
Why,  women  themselves  are  anything  but  mollycoddles  in 
these  days  of  basket-ball  and  athletic  '  stunts '  without 
number !  They'd  be  the  first  to  despise  the  '  feminine ' 
boy — instead  of  petting  him  into  being. 

"  The  whole  notion  is  an  English  pipe  dream.  Girls  in 
England  are  an  absolutely  different  sort  from  the  Ameri- 
can type.  They  are  brought  up  to  wait  on  their  brothers 
by  inches — just  as  they  are  afterward  supposed  to  wait  on 
their  husbands.  Very  likely  a  course  of  education  under 
such  gentle  young  women  would  tend  to  '  feminize '  boys 
— or  make  them  bullies. 

"  But  Mr.  Alfred  Mosely  and  his  fellow  commissioners 
should  not  judge  other  girls  by  the  kind  they  happen  to 
know  at  home — and  then,  to  cap  the  climax,  implant  their 
own  preconceived  impressions  on  impressionable  Americans. 
That's  adding  insult  to  injury.  Luckily,  the  big,  common- 
sense  majority  of  Americans  prefer  to  judge  with  their 
own  eyes. 

"  That  they  don't  believe  women  teachers  are  making 
weaklings  of  their  sons  is  shown  by  the  multiplication,  in- 
stead  of    subtraction    among    the    ranks    of    those    same 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  83 

teachers.  American  fathers  and  mothers  want  the  best — 
and  insist  on  having  it.  They  simply  would  not  stand  for 
the  great  majority  of  women  who  instruct  their  children 
unless  they  believed  in  those  women.  That  their  belief  is 
fully  justified  is  my  unhesitating  assertion. 

"  There  is  absolutely  no  reason  why  women  should  not 
occupy  the  executive  as  well  as  other  positions  in  the  edu- 
cational system.  Chicago  piroved  itself  more  progressive 
than  New  York,  when  it  placed  a  woman  at  the  head  of  its 
immense  school  system — because  she  was  the  fittest  one  for 
the  place.  She  has  done  splendid  work  in  the  past — she 
will  continue  to  stand  for  even  finer  accomplishments  in 
the  future,  because  her  field  is  larger.  But  she  is  no  glar- 
ing, lonely  exception.  There  are  probably  women  right 
here  in  New  York  who  are  as  fit,  or  fitter,  to  hold  the  im- 
portant administrative  positions  in  educational  matters  now 
occupied  by  men.  Fitness  should  be  the  only  requisite  of 
choice.     Is  it? 

"  It  i&  perfectly  true  that  the  public  is  not  disposed  to 
appreciate  very  highly  that  which  can  be  had  cheaply.  The 
very  fact  that  the  salaries  of  the  women  teachers  have  been 
kept  down  for  so  long  is  doubtless  at  bottom  responsible 
for  the  spasmodic  waves  of  discontent  with  them  and  their 
works — such  as  the  criticism  that  they  are  making  our  boys 
feminine.  For  the  sake  of  our  own  self-respect,  in  our  at- 
titude to  those  to  whom  we  entrust  our  children,  we  should 
not  consent  to  load  them  with  the  incubus  of  cheapness. 

"  I  believe  that  women  do  excellent  work  in  the  more 
highly  salaried  teachers'  positions  that  already  exist.  It 
has  been  contended  that  with  all  the  advantages  of  their 
higher  education,  women  have  not  proved  themselves  the 
equals  of  men  in  intellectual  accomplishments.  I  believe 
that  they  hav€  not  been  given  the  chance  to  do  this.  Posi- 
tions of  responsibility  and  power  have  not  been  open  to 
them.  They  have  been  denied  the  highest  opportunities  of 
scientific  research,  for  example.  When  they  have  been 
granted  such,  well,  even  Mme.  Curie's  own  husband  ad- 
mitted that  his  wife  was  as  much  the  discoverer  of  radium 
as  himself! 


84  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"  I  should  like  to  see  more  women  in  professors'  chairs 
in  our  colleges  and  universities.  In  the  women's  colleges 
they  have  long  done  work  of  the  highest  order.  Why 
should  they  be  less  able  to  do  such  work  in  colleges  not 
devoted  entirely  to  women? 

"  Prophecy  is  rather  a  foolish  and  thankless  task,  but  I 
believe  that  before  many  years  we  are  going  to  see  women 
occupying  professors'  chairs  in  our  co-educational  colleges 
at  least.  I  am  positive  that  women  could  do  most  excel- 
lent work  in  such  positions.  Why  not?  The  woman's 
brain  and  the  man's  brain  are  both  capable  of  equal  achieve- 
ment. The  only  reason  for  the  apparent  discrepancy  be- 
tween the  work  each  has  so  far  actually  performed,  is  that 
one  has  deliberately  handicapped  the  other  with  narrow 
opportunities  and  conventionally  restrained  outlook.  If 
you  take  two  equally  healthy  babies  and  tie  the  arms  of 
one  of  them  till  both  of  them  grow  up,  of  course  you'll 
have  a  weaker  physical  development  in  the  case  of  the  one 
who  has  been  bound.  For  centuries  men  have  been  tying 
women's  brains  and  the  result  is  a  weaker  mental  develop- 
ment. That  will  all  be  remedied  when  the  bandages  are 
removed.    And  a  new  one  is  being  taken  off  every  day. 

"  I  would  see  the  teaching  system  equalized — more 
women  among  the  college  instructors,  more  men  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  I  would  have  a  fair  contest  of  brains,  without 
regard  to  sex.    And  let  the  best  man — or  woman — win !  " 

Also  opposed  to  the  feminization  theory  is  Prof.  Edward 
L.  Thorndike,  also  of  Columbia  University,  who  has  made 
an  investigation  of  the  high  school  statistics  of  the  country 
and  in  the  January,  1910,  number  of  the  Educational  Re- 
view published  his  conclusions.  They  are  that  the  influence 
of  the  male  teachers  upon  the  proportion  of  male  students 
is  very  slight,  and  that  the  proportion  of  boys  who  go  over 
to  or  even  stay  through  the  high  school  does  not  at  all  de- 
pend upon  the  percentage  of  men  on  the  staff  of  the 
school. 

"  It  always  is,  or  should  be,  interesting  to  put  speculations 
about  education  to  the  test  of  facts,"  says  Prof.  Thorndike. 
"  The  result  often  is,  or  should  be,  a  warning  to  us  against 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  85 

the  intellectual  crime  of  giving  mere  opinions  where  indo- 
lence is  our  only  excuse  for  failing  to  verify  them. 

"  In  the  present  article  I  propose  to  seek  light  on  the 
very  common  opinion  that  the  ratio  of  boys  to  girls  in  high 
schools,  and  particularly  in  the  later  grades  of  high  schools, 
can  be  largely  increased  by  increasing  the  percentage  of 
men  teachers  in  these  schools. 

"  To  answer  the  question,  *  Do  the  high  schools  which, 
while  roughly  alike  in  other  respects,  differ  greatly  in  the 
proportion  of  male  students  ? '  " 

The  tables  he  prepared  revealed  only  a  "very,  very 
slight "  direct  relation  between  the  proportion  of  male 
teachers  and  male  pupils.  In  184,000  students  recorded, 
the  percentage  of  boys  is  less  than  4  per  cent,  more  among 
the  84,607  in  schools  with  from  40  per  cent,  to  91  per  cent, 
of  men  teachers  than  among  the  81,527  in  schools  with  from 
o  per  cent,  to  35  per  cent. 

"  The  central  tendency  is  to  have  three  out  of  eight 
teachers  men  and  to  have  142  girls  for  every  100  boys  en- 
rolled. For  2,Zh  per  cent,  increase  in  the  proportion  of  male 
teachers,  one  finds  an  increase  of  less  than  one  per  cent,  in 
the  proportion  of  male  students ;  for  66|  per  cent,  increase 
in  the  former  proportion,  one  finds  an  increase  of  2  per 
cent,  in  the  latter;  and  for  an  increase  of  100  per  cent,  in 
the  former,  an  increase  of  4  or  5  per  cent,  in  the  latter. 
Where  the  former  proportion  is  halved  the  proportion  of 
male  students  drops  only  about  i  per  cent,  and  where  it  is 
reduced  to  a  third,  the  drop  in  the  latter  is  less  than  2  per 
cent." 

Taking  forty-two  schools  of  thirteen  or  more  teachers 
having  a  percentage  "  of  male  teachers  of  24  or  under  and 
the  forty-one  such  schools  having  a  percentage  of  male 
teachers  of  47  or  over.  Although  on  the  average  the  lat- 
ter group  have  two  and  a  half  times  as  high  a  percentage 
of  male  teachers,  they  have  a  percentage  of  male  students 
hardly  any  higher  and  a  percentage  of  male  graduates 
which  is  decidedly  lower  than  is  found  in  the  schools  with 
few  men  teachers." 

"  Evidently,"  says  Prof.   Thomdike,  "  the  influence  of 


86  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

the  proportion  of  male  teachers  upon  the  proportion  of 
male  students,  even  when  combined  with  whatever  unreas- 
oning tendency  there  is  for  school  boards  to  provide  a 
larger  share  of  men  teachers  when  the  enrollment  consists 
largely,  of  boys  and  with  the  tendency  of  certain  communi- 
ties to  look  with  disfavor  on  feminization  of  both  the  teach- 
ing profession  and  the  school  populations,  is  very  slight." 

Taking  up  the  equally  interesting  question  whether  high 
schools  differing  greatly  in  the  proportion  of  male  teachers 
show  corresponding  differences  in  the  proportion  of  male 
graduates,  Prof.  Thorndike  declares  that  "  the  proportion 
of  male  teachers  thus  makes  even  less  difference  in  the  pro- 
portion of  male  graduates  than  in  the  proportion  of  male 
students  as  a  whole.  It  appears  then,  that  the  influence 
which  made  the  slight  correlation  between  the  sex  ratio  of 
the  staff  and  that  of  the  student  body  was  not  in  the  main 
the  attractiveness  of  men  teachers  to  boys.  For,  in  so  far 
as  it  was  that,  the  relation  should  be  closer  for  graduates 
upon  whom  the  supposed  attractive  force  would  have  acted 
from  one-half  to  three  and  a  half  years  longer. 

Another  prominent  American  educator  who  flouts  the 
"  Feminization "  theory  is  Alexander  T.  Stuart,  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Schools,  Washington,  D.  C.  In  the  Sun- 
day Tribune  for  March  22,  1908,  one  of  his  articles  ap- 
peared which  was  part  of  a  discussion  started  by  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall.  Following  are  some  extracts  from  said  article: 
"  I  can  read  little  else  in  Doctor  Hall's  article  on  the  *  Fem- 
inization of  Boys '  than  a  plea  for  the  return  to  corporal 
punishmant  at  home  and  in  school,  and  as  such  I  believe  it 
will  have  few  defenders. 

"  It  is  true  that  there  has  been  a  noteworthy  decrease 
in  the  number  and  in  the  proportion  of  men  teachers  in  the 
United  States  within  thirty  years;  but  that  the  results  of 
this  growing  influence  of  the  woman  teacher  and  of  the 
mother  upon  the  character  of  the  individual  boy  and  even- 
tually upon,  the  nation,  are  now,  or  are  to  be  as  described, 
I  do  not  for  a  moment  accept. 

"  In  the  reports  of  the  eminent  English  educators  who 
constituted  the  Mosely  commission,  which  investigated  the 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  87 

American  school  system  in  1903,  the  absence  of  the  man  in 
the  schoolroom  was  repeatedly  deplored ;  but  I  fail  to  recall 
that  any  of  these  experts  claimed  to  have  discovered  in  the 
discipline,  bearing  or  scholarship  of  the  American  boy  at 
school,  or  in  the  behavior  or  achievements  of  the  American 
man,  as  found  participating  in  the  great  social,  poHtical, 
and  business  movements  of  this  country,  any  tangible  evils 
that  might  rightly  be  traced  to  the  tmdue  influence  of 
woman  in  the  education  of  boys.  On  the  contrary,  their 
reasons  for  wanting  more  men  seemed  to  consist  in  the  fact 
that  men  teachers  were  the  fashion  in  England,  supported 
by  the  general  statement  that  perhaps  boys,  after  a  certain 
age,  would  better  be  under  a  man.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
this  startling  plea  for  the  transfer  of  the  control  of  our  boys 
at  home  from  the  mother  to  the  father,  and  at  school  from 
the  woman  teacher  to  the  man  teacher,  by  so  eminent  a 
student  of  childhood  as  Dr.  Hall,  could  not  have  been  made 
without  his  frank  avowal  that  the  all  too  sympathetic  meth- 
ods of  women  must  now  be  abandoned  to  the  sounder  min- 
istrations of  a  '  good  stick  or  ferule.'  " 

I  quote  from  still  another  American  educator  on  this 
point.  President  James  M.  Green,  of  the  State  Normal 
College  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  in  a  speech  delivered  on 
the  occasion  of  the  Regents'  Convocation  at  Albany,  N.  Y., 
October  29,  1909,  said: 

"  The  claim  that  we  should  have  men  teachers  in  any 
considerable  numbers  in  the  elementary  grades  will  not  be 
taken  very  seriously  by  the  parents  of  the  country.  There 
are  a  number  of  more  or  less  fanciful  theories  about  the 
race  becoming  effeminated,  etc.,  that  are  gotten  up  and 
that  sound  learned;  but,  seriously  speaking,  there  is  no 
worry.  There  are  some  men  who  would  be  adapted  to  ele- 
mentary teaching  and  would  do  it  well,  but  women  show  an 
especial  adaptation  to  this  grade  of  work,  and  they  do  it 
so  successfully  that  the  large  part  of  it  may  safely  be  left 
to  them." 

Coming  to  the  authorities  in  our  own  system.  Associate 
Superintendent  Davis  in  Superintendent  Maxwell's  6th  An- 
nual Report  says: 


88  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  this  conclusion  is  based 
on  theory  and  not  upon  fact.  It  is  not  my  experience,  ex- 
tending over  twenty-four  ]^ears,  that  thie  boys  of  this  city 
show,  either  in  school  life  or  out  of  school  life,  this  lack  of 
masculine  characteristics." 

Dr.  Luther  H,  Gulick,  then,  Director  of  Physical  Train- 
ing, and  supervisor  of  athletics  in  New  York  Public 
Schools : 

"  City  conditions  prevent  that  precise  form  of  manifest- 
ing the  combative  element  in  the  boy  which  is  brought  out 
in  smaller  districts  where  he  has  more  freedom,  but  the 
city-trained  boy  has  never  proved  himself  to  be  a  quitter." 
Dr.  Gulick  is  of  the  opinion  that  most  of  the  athletes  in 
this  country  had  received  their  elementary  training  under 
women  teachers.  He  suggests  that  this  might  prove  to  be 
true  of  most  of  the  athletes  on  the  Olympic  team.  "  Theo- 
retically it  would  seem  that  the  boy  who  received  practi- 
cally all  his  early  training  under  a  woman  teacher  would 
become  somewhat  effeminate,"  said  Dr.  Gulick,  "  but  the 
facts,  as  we  can  judge  them  in  the  New  York  public 
schools,  do  not  justify  such  a  conclusion.  The  New  York 
boy  goes  into  athletics  with  an  aggressiveness  and  spirit  of 
combativeness  which  is  sometimes  difficult  to  keep  within 
reasonable  bounds.  That  is  our  trouble — it  is  hard  for  us 
to  keep  him  from  fighting  too  much,  and  in  that  very  par- 
ticular, I  think,  lies  the  best  test  we  have  of  his  manliness." 

On  the  general  proposition  of  feminization,  the  following 
is  interesting: 

Jno.  K.  Le  Baron,  writing  for  the  New  York  World: 
"  Most  great  men  have  had  noble  mothers.  Many  who 
have  attained  enduring  distinction  have  been  the  sons  of 
weak,  dissolute  and  obdurate  fathers. 

"  The  story  of  Cornelia,  daughter  of  Scipio,  wife  of  Ti- 
berius the  elder  and  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  is  one  of  the 
luminous  pages  of  history.  True,  the  Gracchi  had  a  re- 
markable father,  but,  dying  when  they  were  young,  he  left 
his  sons  to  their  mother's  care.  The  Gracchi  were  the 
noblest  Romans  of  their  day. 

"  The  mother  of  Confucius  was  *  a  woman  of  rare  mental 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  89 

and  spiritual  worth.'  The  great  philosopher  constantly 
sought  her  companionship  and  counsel. 

"  The  father  of  Savanarola  was  an  indigent  profligate. 
It  was  from  his  mother  that  he  received  his  sublime  cour- 
age, and  her  teachings  were  the  basis  of  his  character. 

"  Pope,  a  cynic  and  a  sage,  bitter  in  his  resentments  and 
cruel  in  his  cynicisms,  was  devotion  itself  to  his  mother  and 
owed  much  to  her  restraining  influence. 

"  '  It  was  to  his  mother,'  says  Mathews,  *  a  woman  of 
great  energy  and  rare  accomplishments,  that  Bulwer  was 
indebted  for  the  formation  and  guidance  of  his  literary 
tastes.' 

"  Andrew  Carnegie,  speaking  to  boys  in  a  school  in  Pitts- 
burg, said  recently :  '  Woman  raises  man  to  the  highest 
standard.    My  mother  and  my  wife  made  me  all  that  I  am.' 

"  Our  own  great  and  beloved  Lincoln  declared :  '  All 
that  I  am  and  all  that  I  hope  to  be  I  owe  to  my  mother.' " 


CHAPTER   VII 

SUPPLY     AND    DEMAND 

I  TALKED  at  the  City  Club  one  afternoon,  and  I  believe 
I  shocked  them  very  much  by  not  treating  this  "  economic 
law  "  w^ith  more  reverence.  I  said  it  made  me  think  of  the 
vegetable  market.  When  it  is  applied  to  men  and  women, 
it  seems  silly.  I  happened  to  say — trying  to  be  funny  in 
order  to  hide  my  weariness  of  the  oft-heard  arguments — 
the  only  market  I  would  consider  would  be  the  matrimonial 
market.  And  one  of  the  speakers  that  followed  me  criti- 
cised me  as  being  "  flippant."  I  appeal  to  my  married 
readers:    Is  that  a  flippant  subject? 

One  is  prone  to  think  primarily  of  a  building — an  insen- 
sate mass  of  matter.  But  truly,  a  school  is  complete  with- 
out a  building.  Wherever  there  is  one  to  teach  and  one 
to  be  taught,  there  is  a  school.  Some  of  the  greatest  schools 
in  history  were  without  buildings.  But  to  bring  about  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,  and  to  put  into  effect 
the  opinion  that  the  welfare  of  the  State  depends  on  the 
education  of  its  citizens,  buildings  are  provided.  That  they 
are  not  absolutely  necessary  to  school  keeping,  however, 
was  proven  in  San  Francisco  recently,  when  the  city,  after 
the  earthquake,  kept  school  in  open  fields  while  its  build- 
ings were  being  restored. 

Now,  of  the  two  necessities  for  a  school — ^teacher  and 
pupil — which  is  more  necessary?  The  answer  to  this  is 
largely  forced  by  the  much  misused  law  of  Supply  and 
Demand.  A  State  is  not  a  State  without  a  natural  supply 
of  pupils ;  a  State  may  be  a  State  without  a  natural  supply 
of  teachers.  So  that  the  teacher  is  the  greater  necessity  to 
the  State. 

Therefore,  the  State  must  see  to  it  that  it  get  a  sufficient 
number  of  teachers  to  supply  the  natural  demand  made  by 
its  millions  of  children  and  its  duty  to  promote  the  general 

90 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK  91 

welfare.  Suppose  all  the  teachers  of  the  State  rebelled 
against  some  injustice — fancied  or  real — and  agreed  to  stop 
teaching.  Can  you  imagine  the  condition  of  the  State  at 
the  end  of  a  week?  How  much  worse  at  the  end  of  a 
month?  A  year?  Ten  years?  But  it  is  doubtful  if  in 
these  days  a  State  could  stand  ten  years  without  schools. 
One  might  ask,  What  would  the  teachers  do?  How  would 
they  earn  a  living?  But  is  it  not  inevitable  that  the  de- 
mands for  policemen,  for  matrons  and  nurses  in  hospitals, 
insane  asylums,  prisons,  and  other  houses  of  detention,  for 
lawyers,  for  doctors,  would  all  increase  with  the  millions  of 
children  left  without  teachers?  It  would  not  take  a  State 
very  long  to  realize  how  much  it  needs  its  teachers — how 
much  it  owes  its  teachers.  Suppose  it  was  only  the  men 
teachers  that  became  dissatisfied  and  gave  up  their  positions. 
Would  the  State  find  it  impossible  to  get  women  to  do  their 
work?  But  again,  suppose  it  was  only  the  women  teachers 
that  left  their  classrooms  and  their  pupils?  Could  the  State 
fill  their  places  as  readily  as  they  might  those  of  the  men? 
The  task  would  be  far  more  difficult. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  decreasing  number  of 
men  teachers  in  the  schools  of  the  country  and  the  threat- 
ened feminization  of  boys  by  reason  of  the  large  and  in- 
creasing proportion  of  women  teachers.  Examination  of 
the  statistics  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  this  city  show 
that  the  conditions  here  are  directly  opposite  to  those  in 
the  rest  of  the  country.  Here  the  proportion  of  men  has 
been  increasing  since  1902.  Not  only  that,  the  school  au- 
thorities now  claim  that  the  elementary  schools  have  almost 
all  the  men  teachers  they  need. 

The  report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion shows  that  in  1901-2  the  percentage  of  men  to  women 
teachers  in  the  country  at  large  was  27.4,  while  in  1906-7 
it  had  dropped  to  22.3.  In  this  city,  however,  the  percen- 
tage in  high  and  elementary  schools  in  1902  was  8.3-  per 
cent.,  while  in  the  year  ended  July,  1908,  it  was  11^4 
per  cent. 

Comparing  the  figures  for  the  separate  schools,  even 
more  interesting  deductions  are  possible. 


92  EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

In  1902  there  were  m  high  schools  284  men  and  346 
women,  a  total  of  630,  or  45/42  per  cent.  men.  In  1908 
there  were  530  men  and  592  women,  a  total  of  1 122  and 
a  percentage  of  47%  1  men. 

In  elementary  schools  in  1902  there  were  10,181  teachers, 
of  whom  617,  or  6Y20  per  cent.,  were  men,  and  9564  women ; 
but  in  1908  the  total  number  of  teachers  was  13,354,  of 
whom  1 1 13,  or  8%3  per  cent.,  were  men. 

In  his  Tenth  Annual  Report,  Mr.  Maxwell  says :  "  The 
majority  of  the  class  teachers  in  the  public  schools  are 
women  for  two  reasons:  (a)  for  the  younger  children  who 
constitute  the  larger  number  in  the  schools,  women  make 
the  better  teachers;  (b)  the  services  of  women  teachers 
may  be  obtained  more  cheaply  than  those  of  men."  And 
further  on  he  says :  "  In  order  to  obtain  the  services  of 
even  a  small  number  of  men,  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  pay  considerably  higher  salaries  than  those  paid  to 
women." 

Yet  statistics  prove  that  this  "  small  number  "  is  greatly 
in  excess  of  the  average  for  the  United  States. 

Superintendent  Maxwell's  Report  for  1907-8: 

Total  number  of  teachers i,7i77 

Total  number  of  women  teachers 15,003 

Total  number  of  men  teachers 2,174 

Percentage   of   women   teachers 87.3 

Percentage  of  men  teachers 12.7 

In  a  speech  at  the  20th  Anniversary  Dinner  of  the  Mid- 
wood  Club,  May  21,  1909,  Superintendent  Maxwell  said,  in 
speaking  of  men  teachers,  "  Ten  per  cent,  is  as  much  as  we 
need." 

Why  then  load  up  the  system  with  12.7  per  cent.,  nearly 
25  per  cent,  more  than  the  City  Superintendent  thinks  nec- 
essary ? 

I  have  enough  of  the  political-and-social  economist  sense 
to  recognize  and  acknowledge  that  the  ratio  of  the  normal 
or  natural  supply  of  any  commodity  to  the  normal  or  nat- 
ural demand  for  such  commodity  is  a  valid  basis  for  regu- 
lating the  cost  or  selling  price  of  same.     But  I  have  also 


UQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  93 

enough  of  common  sense  and  good  judgment  to  differen- 
tiate the  supply-and-demand  arguments  which  are  forced, 
abnormal,  spurious  and  inapphcable  from  tliose  that  are 
real  and  applicable.  A  mustard  poultice  is  a  good  thing  to 
apply  to  an  inflamed  chest,  but  the  most  rabid  supporter  of 
the  mustard  poultice  remedy  would  not  insist  on  applying 
it  to  an  inflamed  eye ! 

Now,  I  claim  that  the  argument  of  "  Supply  and  De- 
mand "  is  not  applicable  in  the  consideration  of  the  "  Equal 
Pay "  question  raised  by  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers.  I  base  my  claim  on  the  following 
facts : 

1.  Said  teachers  are  not  in  the  open  market ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  supply  is  limited  to  those  who  secure  places 
on  an  eligible  list. 

2.  The  qualifications  and  requirements  to  be  met  by  can- 
didates are  fixed,  not  by  God's  or  Nature's  laws,  but  by  the 
laws  of  the  State  and  the  by-laws  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. 

3.  The  supply  of  such  eligible  candidates  is  dependent  on 
the  number,  frequency,  and  regularity  of  the  examinations, 
and  is  therefore  largely  in  control  of  the  Board  of  Exam- 
iners and  Board  of  Education. 

4.  The  demand  for  teachers  depends  on  the  supply  of 
pupils. 

5.  The  supply  of  our  pupils  in  grades  below  the  seventh 
year  of  the  Course  of  Study  is  nineteen  times  as  great  as 
the  supply  of  pupils  in  all  grades  above  the  sixth  year  of 
the  Course  of  Study. 

6.  All  authorities  agree  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
children  demand  women  teachers  in  these  lower  grades. 

7.  Principals  demand  women  teachers  in  these  lower 
grades. 

8.  Superintendents  demand  women  teachers  in  these 
lower  grades. 

9.  Our  Board  of  Education  provides  two  regular  exam- 
inations a  year — January  and  June — for  teachers  of  these 
lower  grades. 

10.  Our  Board  of  Education  provides  examinations  for 


94  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

license  for  higher  grades  and  positions  at  irregular,  un- 
known, infrequent  periods. 

The  following  are  but  samples:  Globe,  January  ii, 
1910:  "It  is  doubtful  if  an  examination  of  teachers  of 
Mathematics  in  High  School  will  be  held  before  March 
or  April.     Probably  not  for  a  year." 

Another :  "  No  date  has  been  set  for  the  next  examina- 
tion for  women  teachers  of  history  in  high  schools.  One 
will  not  be  held  before  next  fall." 

Who  knows  when  the  next  examination  for  candidates 
to  teach  Music,  Physical  Training,  Mathematics,  Latin,  Bi- 
ology or  any  other  special  or  high  school  subject  will  be 
held? 

Who  knows  when  there  will  be  an  examination  of  such 
people  as  desire  to  be  Model  or  Critic  Teachers  in  our 
Training  Schools? 

Ask  any  high  school  principal,  any  director  of  a  special 
subject,  any  one  of  the  46  members  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, any  one  of  the  230  members  of  the  local  school 
boards,  any  one  of  the  students  in  our  high  schools  or 
colleges,  any  Civil  Service  Commissioner,  any  of  the  other 
officials  of  the  city,  any  of  the  citizens  of  the  city,  any 
taxpayer,  and  see  if  you  will  receive  a  satisfactory 
answer? 

In  a  letter  which  I  wrote  to  a  clerk  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation in  January,  1910,  I  asked  these  questions : 

"  Can  you  tell  me  when  the  next  high  school  examination 
will  be  held? 

"  The  date  of  the  last  previous  examination  in  the  same 
subject? 

"  When  was  an  examination  for  Model  teacher  or  for 
Critic  teacher  in  training  school  held,  and  when  will  the 
next  one  be  ?  " 

Following  are  the  answers  received: 

"  High  school  examinations  are  held  twice  each  year  in 
such  subjects  as  there  is  a  demand,  when  the  lists  of  such 
subjects  are  exhausted  or  likely  to  be  exhausted.  It  is 
likely  that  the  next  examination  will  be  held  about  April 
first. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK  95 

"  The  examinations  for  licenses  to  teach  in  training 
schools  are  held  only  when  there  is  a  vacancy." 

If  college  graduates  knew  that  there  would  be  an  exam- 
ination every  June  or  every  September,  or  at  some  other 
regular,  stated  time,  when  they  were  free  to  get  to  New 
York  and  take  the  examination,  there  would  never  be  any 
scarcity  of  candidates. 

In  face  of  these  conditions,  I  question  the  good  faith 
of  any  who  apply  the  general  argument  of  Supply  and  De- 
mand to  the  solution  of  the  question  which  the  women 
teachers  have  raised. 

But  admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  the  good  faith 
of  the  advocates  of  Demand  and  Supply  as  applied  to  this 
question,  let  us  try  to  demonstrate  the 

Theorem :  The  men  teachers  of  New  York  City  should 
be  paid  more  than  the  women  teachers  thereof  because  the 
supply  of  the  women  teachers  is  greater  than  the  supply 
of  men  teachers. 

Granted:  (a)  That  there  is  an  Association  of  Unap- 
pointed  Men  Teachers  demanding  places  in  these  public 
schools. 

(b)  That  there  is  no  Association  of  Unappointed  Women 
Teachers,  nor  are  women  teachers  making  any  formal  de- 
mand for  such  places. 

(c)  That  the  number  of  men  teachers  holding  License 
No.  I  who  have  waited  one,  two,  or  more  years  for  ap- 
pointment is  far  in  excess  of  the  number  of  women  hold- 
ing similar  license  who  have  waited  six  months. 

(d)  That  a  man  teacher  has  brought  mandamus  pro- 
ceedings against  the  Board  of  Education  to  compel  his  ap- 
pointment because  his  percentage  was  upwards  of  90,  while 
women  with  only  70  per  cent,  were  appointed  to  places  for 
which  he  was  eligible. 

(e)  That  no  woman  teacher  has  ever  brought  such  pro- 
ceedings on  similar  grounds. 

Therefore:  Men  teachers  should  be  paid  more  than  the 
women  teachers,  because  the  supply  of  men  teachers  is 
greater  than  the  supply  of  women  teachers.  Reductio  ad 
Absurdum ! 


96  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Furthermore,  the  highest  educational  authorities  hold 
that  women  are  the  best  teachers  for  the  younger  children. 

City  Superintendent  Maxwell  is  an  educational  author- 
ity, and  Mr.  Maxwell  states  in  his  Annual  Reoort,  1907: 
"  Experience  doubtless  shows  that  women  teachers  teach 
younger  pupils,  boys  as  well  as  girls,  better  than  men." 

Horace  Mann  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  foremost  edu- 
cators in  the  history  of  our  country,  and  Horace  Mann  said 
he  would  as  soon  place  an  elephant  to  brood  chickens  as 
he  would  a  man  to  teach  little  children. 

Yet,  the  city  of  New  York  is  paying  a  man  who  teaches 
little  children  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  times  as  much 
as  it  pays  a  woman  who  teaches  these  same  little  children, 
and  it  makes  the  woman  serve  seven  years  before  it  pays 
her  what  it  gives  the  man  in  his  first  year  of  service. 

Finally,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  cry 
that  men  teachers  are  needed  comes  from  prejudiced 
sources,  that  is — according  to  the  petition  blank  of  the  Un- 
appointed  Men  Teachers — ■"  certain  members  of  the  Board 
of  Education,"  "  remarks  of  principals,"  and  "  statements 
of  the  Association  of  Principals  and  Male  Teachers." 
Where  is  the  cry  from  the  pupils?  (See  Professor  Thorn- 
dike's  conclusions.)  Where  is  the  cry  from  the  public? 
Where  is  the  cry  from  the  representatives  of  the  people — 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  the  Legislature? 

Compare  the  demand  for  Equal  Pay: 

From  the  people  of  the  city  represented  by  the  Board  of  Alder- 
men.   Unanimous  vote. 

From  the  people  of  the  city  represented  by  the  Legislature,  80 
out  of  86  New  York  City  votes  for  it. 

From  the  Labor  Unions  representing  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
our  citizens.    Unanimous. 

From  the  hundreds  of  Organizations  of  women  and  men. 

From  the  thousands  of  individual  citizens  who  have  used  voice 
or  pen  in  our  behalf. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

SCARCITY    OF    WOMEN    TEACHERS    BREEDS    DETERIORATION    IN 
QUALITY  OF  TEACHER  AND  OVERCROWDED  CLASSES 

When  we  went  to  Albany  in  January,  1907,  there  were 
633  actual  vacancies  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York 
city.  When  you  realize  that  that  is  about  the  number  of 
teachers  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  its  significance  will  sink 
deeper.  Imagine  the  city  of  Rochester  failing  to  supply 
teachers  for  its  public  school  children.  No  Legislature  or 
Governor  would  hesitate  long  over  enacting  a  mandatory 
law  to  make  her  do  so.  Yet  here  in  our  own  city,  with  its 
millions  of  foreigners,  was  a  number  of  school  children 
equal  to  the  total  number  of  public  school  pupils  in  one  of 
the  first-class  cities  of  this  State,  equal  to  the  total  number 
of  public  school  children  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,  greater 
than  the  total  number  of  all  the  people  in  the  State  of 
Nevada,  without  regular  teachers:  to-day  in  the  care  of 
a  pupil ;  to-morrow  in  the  hands  of  a  male  substitute,  at 
three  dollars  a  day;  next  day  in  charge  of  a  female  sub- 
stitute, at  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day.  Is  it  any  wonder 
we  have  thousands  and  thousands  of  backward  children? 

And  what  has  the  State  done  about  it  in  these  four 
years?  Nothing.  It  is  true  the  Legislature  passed  two 
bills,  one  effect  of  which  would  have  been  to  increase  and 
improve  the  supply  of  teachers,  but  Governor  Hughes's 
veto  killed  one  and  Mayor  McClellan's  the  other. 

And  what  has  the  city  done  about  it?  Apparently  has 
not  noticed  it.  If  these  vacancies  were  all  in  the  North 
Side  section,  or  the  Flatbush  section,  or  the  Bushwick  sec- 
tion, the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  Taxpayers*  Association 
of  that  particular  locality  would  be  "  up  in  arms " ;  but 
they  are  scattered  through  the  five  hundred  schools,  and 
so  the  danger  does  not  seem  acute  in  any  one  spot. 
Through  all  our  fight,  I  have  heard  only  one  man  speak 

97 


98  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

on  this  phase  of  the  question,  pointing  out  his  right  and 
that  of  all  citizens  to  have  good  teachers  for  their  children 
and  emphasizing  this  need  in  the  case  of  the  children  of 
laboring  men  who  may  have  to  leave  school  early.  This 
man  vi^as  James  L.  Gernon,  speaking  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Central  Labor  Union,  Brooklyn,  at  which  we  were  per- 
mitted to  state  our  case. 

And  what  has  the  Board  of  Education  done  about  it? 
Held  a  special  and  extra  examination  in  April,  1908;  ex- 
tended the  age  limit  of  candidates  for  license  No.  i ;  made 
certain  concessions  in  ratings. 

High  school  teachers  have  told  me  their  best  girls  are 
not  taking  up  teaching.  They  are  learning  that  the  city 
offers  far  better  salary  inducements  in  other  positions ;  and 
all  who  know  anything  about  teaching,  acknowledge  there 
is  no  occupation  that  calls  for  so  much  self-sacrifice.  When 
a  girl  who  is  employed  as  clerk  or  stenographer  or  tele- 
phone operator  goes  home  at  night,  her  work  is  over. 
Not  so  with  the  girl  who  is  a  teacher.  Some  may  say 
that  the  teacher  has  shorter  hours  and  longer  vacations. 
That  is  true,  but  the  shorter  hours  and  longer  vacations 
are  not  fixed  out  of  consideration  for  the  teacher,  but  for 
the  pupil.  It  is  true  the  teacher  could  not  stand  the  strain, 
either;  but  if  the  pupils  could,  the  teachers  might  be  al- 
lowed to  break  down  if  that  did  not  also  entail  a  loss  to 
the  pupil. 

SCARCITY   OF   TEACHERS    BREEDS   DETERIORATION    OF   QUALITY 
OF    TEACHER    AND    OVERCROWDED    CLASSES 

One  of  the  inevitable  results  of  a  short  supply  is  deteri- 
oration of  quality.  The  demand  for  women  teachers  has 
been  so  much  greater  than  the  supply  that  the  standards 
of  qualifications  and  requirements  and  rating  have  been 
lowered.  Nearly  all  those  who  complete  the  courses  for 
teachers  at  high  and  training  schools  have  been  granted 
licenses  to  teach.  For  the  special  examination  for  license 
No.  I  given  in  April,  1908,  concessions  were  made  to  in- 
duce teachers  from  outside  this  city  to  compete. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  99 

Commenting  on  this,  the  Evening  Journal  of  December 
31,  1908,  said  editorially: 

"  Why  Not  Teachers  Better  Paid  Instead  of  Teachers 
Less  Intelligent? 

"  The  New  York  public  schools  have  issued  a  circular 
which  lowers  the  standard  of  candidates  for  public  school 
positions. 

"  Women  that  ordinarily  would  be  required  to  pass  cer- 
tain examinations  before  being  accepted  as  school  teachers 
are  now  exempt  from  parts  of  examinations  or  allowed  to 
pass  and  become  teachers  on  a  lower  percentage  than  for- 
rrierly. 

"  The  explanation  is  simple — there  are  not  enough  public 
school  teachers. 

"  There  are  now  seven  hundred  vacancies  in  the  public 
schools.    Seven  hundred  more  teachers  are  needed. 

"  This  lowering  of  standard  follows  closely  upon  a  fight 
to  prevent  the  women  in  the  schools  from  getting  fair  play 
— the  same  pay  as  men  for  the  same  work. 

"  It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  school  authorities  fight- 
ing against  decent  pay  for  the  women,  struggling  to  keep 
women  teachers  on  an  inferior  wage  plane,  and  then  invit- 
ing women  of  inferior  ability  to  become  teachers  because 
not  enough  able  women  can  be  hired  on  an  unjust  basis  of 

pay. 

"But  this  question  ought  to  force  itself  on  the, school 
authorities : 

"  Why  have  you  a  shortage  of  seven  hundred  among  your 
women  teachers?  Why  are  you  compelled  to  change  your 
examination  standards?  Why  not  pay  the  women  fairly? 
Wh  not  give  them  what  you  give  men  for  the  same  work? 
Why  not  make  of  the  teachers  a  satisfied,  dignified,  well- 
paid,  thoroughly  appreciated  body  of  public  officials  ?  Their 
work  is  the  most  important  work  that  is  done  in  the  world. 

"  Why  insist  on  treating  them  as  though  they  were 
*  hands '  in  a  factory  to  be  kept  down  to  the  lowest  pos- 
sible wages  ?  Why  not  consent  to  pay  an  intelligent  woman 
in  the  public  schools,  a  woman  to  whom  fifty  young  human 
souls  are  confided,  as  generously  as  you  treat  the  man  who 


100         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

sweeps  out  the  halls  in  the  Court  House  or  the  janitor 
who  feeds  the  furnace,  or  even  the  policeman  who  handles 
the  criminal?" 

Other  press  comment  was: 

"  A  little  while  ago  the  Delineator  was  asking  the  ques- 
tion, 'What  is  the  matter  with  the  public  schools?'  There 
were  a  number  of  suggestions  that  developed  from  that 
investigation.  There  are  a  number  of  things  the  matter. 
Out  of  them  all  one  defect  in  our  educational  system  stands 
out  glaringly.  It  is  most  tersely  told  in  the  last  report  of 
the  United  States  Commission  of  Education.  It's  a  simple 
statement  of  the  salaries  that  American  cities  pay  their 
school  teachers. 

"  And  that,  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  school  boards,  is 
what  is  the  matter  with  our  public  schools,  says  the  Delin- 
eator. We  pay  our  unskilled  street  laborers  something 
like  a  dollar  or  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  day.  We  are  pay- 
ing our  school  teachers  some  less  and  some  a  little  more. 
It  is  the  wages  that  a  dull  brain  and  a  primitive  mind  are 
worth. 

"  In  return  for  such  wages  we  are  requiring  a  service 
that  should  be  entrusted  only  to  a  mind  and  heart  enriched 
with  all  that  literature  and  art  and  science  can  contribute 
to  a  perfect  culture.  It  should  be  only  such  a  personality 
into  whose  training  we  give  the  future  citizens  of  the  na- 
tion. Can  we  get  personalities  like  that  to  serve  us  in  our 
public  schools?  Not  any  longer  than  they  can  help  it. 
Just  as  soon  as  their  force  of  character  and  intelligence  and 
initiative  enable  them  to  reach  a  better-paying  position,  one 
that  will  allow  them  to  buy  books  and  hear  music  and  have 
the  other  good  things  of  life  that  their  large  natures  crave, 
they  go  after  it. 

"  Until  we  realize  with  a  conviction  that  reaches  our 
pocketbooks  that  the  school  laborer  is  worthy  of  her  hire, 
we  aren't  going  to  keep  the  best  school  laborers  in  the 
public  employ.  And  there  will  continue  to  be  something 
the  matter  with  the  public  schools." 

New  York  Tribune,  December  31,  1907:  "In  making  it 
somewhat  easier  for  women  teachers  to  secure  places  in  the 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         loi 

New  York  City  schools  Superintendent  Maxwell  takes  cog- 
nizance of  actual  conditions.  The  present  shortage  of  more 
than  seven  hundred  teachers  indicates  the  practical  impos- 
sibility of  maintaining  ideal  standards  of  scholarship,  and 
the  Superintendent  considers  it  far  wiser  to  furnish  seven 
hundred  schoolrooms  with  teachers  of  moderate  attain- 
ments than  to  deprive  some  thirty  thousand  pupils  of  proper 
facilities." 

Herald,  January  23,  1909 :  "  The  Pay  of  Teachers." 
"  *  There  has  never  appeared  any  reason  why  teachers'  sal- 
aries should  be  so  small  when  compared  with  the  impor- 
tance of  the  work  they  are  called  to  do,  but  it  has  been 
so  since  the  old  Greek  peripatetics  used  to  dispense  philos- 
ophy in  exchange  for  a  crust. — 'Washington  Post.'  But 
how  inevitably  the  laws  of  compensation  works.  Poor  pay 
means  mediocre  teachers  as  a  rule;  mediocrity  in  teaching 
means  inferior  education,  and  in  the  train  of  the  latter 
follows  inefficiency  and  poverty  among  the  masses.  For- 
tunately American  States  and  cities  are  learning  the  lesson 
that  great  economic  waste  results  from  poor  pay  for 
teachers." 

Hon.  Lewis  Nixon,  speaking  at  our  Carnegie  Mass  Meet- 
ing, supported  the  contention  of  the  women  as  a  business 
proposition.  He  did  not  consider  that  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  was  applicable,  and  declared  that  equal  pay 
ought  to  be  granted  for  business  reasons.  It  had  been  his 
experience  that  whenever  a  product  is  sold  for  less  than 
it  is  worth  there  is  deterioration  in  the  product.  It  was 
conceded  that  the  women  were  not  being  paid  what  they 
were  worth,  for  the  city  was  paying  men  more  for  iden- 
tically the  same  service.  He  added  that  if  the  inequalities 
were  not  rectified  the  result  would  be  in  the  long  run  the 
impairment  of  the  efficiency  of  the  teachers. 

Associate  Superintendent  Davis  said  in  Superintendent 
Maxwell's  6th  Annual  Report :  "  It  seems  to  be  impossible 
to  find  an  adequate  number  of  properly  qualified  persons  to 
fill  all  vacancies." 

City  Superintendent  Maxwell  in  his  loth  Annual  Re^ 
port  says :     "  I  feel  constrained  to  say  from  my  intimate 


102         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

acquaintance  with  the  work  of  the  Board  of  Examiners 
that  the  salaries  now  paid  to  women  teachers  are  not  suf- 
ficient to  attract  to  our  schools  the  best  women  teachers  in 
the  country."  Mr.  Maxwell  had  previously  made  some  sal- 
lary  recommendations  on  which  the  Standard-Union  of 
January  lo,  1908,  thus  commented:  "The  advocacy  of 
equal  pay  for  men  and  women  teachers  is  taken  out  of 
the  field  of  sentiment  by  some  common-sense  observations 
of  Superintendent  Maxwell,  who  recommended  increasing 
the  minimum  for  women  from  $600  to  $720,  that  the  max- 
imum be  not  less  than  $1500,  and  that  all  the  principals 
shall  receive  the  same  salaries.  He  suggests  there  are  some 
special  purposes  for  which  a  few  men  teachers  are  essen- 
tial. If  so,  and  it  really  costs  more  to  get  them  than  it 
would  to  get  women  for  the  same  places,  an  exception  to 
the  principle  of  equal  pay  might  be  made  here — but  it  is 
to  be  noticed  that  the  shortage  of  teachers  over  which  such 
an  ado  is  made  just  now  is  a  shortage  of  women  teachers. 
There  is  much  reason  to  suspect  the  notion  that  a  qualified 
man  for  a  man's  place  is  harder  to  get  than  a  qualified 
woman  for  a  woman's  place  is  more  or  less  a  myth." 

District  Superintendent  Richman  reported:  "An  almost 
insurmountable  obstacle  to  real  progress  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  not  a  few  teachers  lack  definite  knowledge  of  the 
subject  matter  to  be  taught." 

On  account  of  the  dearth  of  women  teachers  it  was  an- 
nounced, "  In  the  oral  examination  for  license  No.  i,  a 
standing  of  62  credits  will  be  accepted  in  the  case  of  women 
who  have  received  a  sufficiently  high  rating  in  the  written 
to  bring  the  average  up  to  70." 

If  we  grant  that  our  high  schools  and  training  schools 
are  graduating  only  such  as  are  fit  scholastically  at  least, 
should  not  the  "  Oral  Examination,"  including  as  it  does 
ratings  on  "  Personality,"  "  Record,"  and  "  Use  of  Eng- 
lish," form  the  most  important  part  of  the  examination  for 
teacher's  license? 

Some  of  the  reasons  for  the  scarcity  of  women  teachers 
in  the  public  school  system  are  given  in  the  address  of 
Abby  Leach,  professor  of  Greek,  Vassar  College,  before 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         103 

the  Collegiate  Alumnae,  Boston,  November,  1907.  She 
said :  "  Girls  are  now  turning  away  from  teaching  as  their 
work  and  seeking  other  occupations,  and  this  is  right,  for 
few  are  fitted  to  be  teachers.  But  the  real  reason  is  that 
the  life  of  a  teacher  does  not  attract  them,  and  without 
question  they  do  come  into  much  more  human  relations  in 
other  lines  of  work.  Philanthropy  is  popular,  and  anyone 
who  allies  herself  with  any  philanthropic  or  charitable  work 
is  better  paid,  and  brought  into  pleasanter  social  relations 
than  a  teacher.  Yet  there  is  often  no  comparison  between 
the  value  of  the  work  in  each  case.  The  teacher  is  train- 
ing the  mind  and  character,  the  other  is  frequently  minis- 
tering only  to  bodily  needs;  the  one  works  for  the  imma- 
terial, the  other  for  the  material.  Why  is  the  one  valued 
so  highly  and  the  other  undervalued?  Does  it  mean  that 
the  age  is  so  given  over  to  material  things  that  it  does  not 
really  care  for  anything  else?  If  parents  did  care  deeply 
for  the  mental  development  of  their  children,  were  in  ear- 
nest for  them  to  have  the  best  possible  education,  would 
they  allow  the  profession  of  teaching  to  be  so  poorly  paid 
as  it  is  now?  Would  they  submit  to  such  poor  teaching 
as  is  found  too  commonly  now?" 

That  the  scarcity  still  persists  is  proven  by  the  fact  that 
all  of  the  women  teachers  on  the  eligible  list  for  license  No. 
I  were  appointed  February  24,  1910.  At  that  date  there 
were  still  over  100  men  waiting  for  appointment. 

SCARCITY  OF  TEACHERS  BREEDS  OVERCROWDED  CLASSES 

But  the  most  serious  result  of  the  scarcity  of  teachers  is 
the  overcrowding  of  classes  and  the  resultant  crop  of  aver- 
age pupils.  Associate  Superintendent  Davis  reported  No- 
vember, 1906:  "  The  scarcity  of  teachers  prevailing  at  the 
time  of  the  present  writing  warns  us  that  we  cannot  in- 
crease the  number  of  classes  and  thus  reduce  the  number  of 
pupils  to  a  class  faster  than  is  warranted  by  .the  supply  of 
trained  teachers.  With  few  exceptions,  at  various  times 
during  the  year  the  several  eligible  lists  for  teachers  in 
the  elementary  schools  have  become  exhausted." 


104         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  Globe  made  this  pertinent  comment: 

"  Large  classes,  one  of  the  worst  evils  of  any  public 
school  system,  bid  fair  to  remain  in  the  New  York  schools 
for  many  months.  Being  unable  to  get  enough  regular 
teachers  for  the  local  schools,  the  Board  of  Education  has 
instructed  the  board  of  superintendents  not  to  further  de- 
crease the  number  of  pupils  to  a  teacher.  This  means  that 
even  the  largest  classes  cannot  be  reduced  in  size,  and  that 
no  more  special  classes  for  over-age  and  foreign-born  chil- 
dren can  be  organized  for  the  present. 

"  There  are  thousands  of  classes  in  the  public  schools 
which  have  from  forty-five  to  sixty  pupils  all  in  the  care 
of  one  teacher.  It  is  evident  that  with  so  many  pupils  the 
teacher  cannot  do  his  or  her  work  justice.  Furthermore, 
the  classrooms  have  been  planned  to  accommodate  not  more 
than  fifty  pupils,  and  to  crowd  more  than  that  number  into 
a  single  room  means  a  decrease  in  the  air  space  per  child 
and  less  healthful  conditions.  .  .  .  Under  such  circum- 
stances the  pupils  cannot  do  their  best  work." 

Mr.  Joseph  M.  Rogers,  in  the  March  number  of  Lippin- 
cott's,  says  in  an  article  on  "  Educating  Our  Boys  " :  "  No 
teacher  is  physically  or  mentally  competent  to  give  proper 
instruction  to  forty  children,  which  is  the  average  size  of 
a  division  in  the  public  schools.  It  is  amazing  that  so 
much  is  accomplished  under  such  diffiulties.  It  is  because 
the  average  teacher — usually  a  woman — gives  of  her  vital- 
ity and  sympathy  and  mental  force  to  an  extent  which  is 
abnormal  and  deplorable." 

These  conditions  are  not  exaggerated.  I  know  of  two 
school  districts  in  this  city  which  had  recently  187  classes 
with  registers  greater  than  50,  and  18  classes  with  registers 
of  50.    This  out  of  a  total  of  about  650  classes. 

Yet  in  a  report  to  the  Board  of  Estimate,  President  Win- 
throp  of  the  Board  of  Education  quotes  Dr.  Maxwell  in 
the  following  manner :  "  Fifty  pupils  is  too  large  a  num- 
ber to  occupy  any  room  or  for  any  teacher  to  teach,  no 
matter  how  numerous  the  sittings." 

And  Dr.  Maxwell,  in  an  article  in  the  City  Record,  said : 
"  I  have  made  a  study  of  this  subject  for  years  and  have 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         105 

reached  the  very  definite  conclusion  that  the  limit  of  a 
teacher's  most  successful  work  is  reached  with  the  follow- 
ing number  of  pupils  in  the  respective  grades: 

"  Kindergarten 30 

I  A — 4  B 40 

5A— 8B 30 

Defectives 10." 

Yet  the  average  number  of  pupils  to  a  class  in  the  grades 
from  I  A  to  8  B,  inclusive,  according  to  Mr.  Maxwell's 
idth  Annual  Report,  is  42.  Is  it  surprising  that  the  same 
report  states  that  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  over-age 
or  retarded  children  in  our  schools? 

Is  this  economy?  Scarcity  of  teachers  breeds  large 
classes.  Large  classes  breed  over-age  children.  Over-age 
children  cost  the  city  to  educate  from  two  to  four  times 
what  normal-age  children  cost. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Flatbush  Taxpayers'  Association 
January  6,  1910,  Commissioner  Frank  Meyer  of  the  Board 
of  Education  said :  "  It  is  an  outrage  to  place  60  children 
in  a  room  and  ask  a  teacher  to  instruct  them.  It  is  a  shame 
to  burden  teachers  in  the  grammar  grades  with  more  than 
45  pupils  at  the  most.    .    .    ." 

I  am  sure  we  all  agree  with  him. 

Wisdom  says :    "  Hire  more  teachers." 

Market  replies :    "  Can't  supply  them  at  present  rates." 

Wisdom  answers :    "  Offer  higher  rates." 


CHAPTER   IX 

SCARCITY    OF    TEACHERS     BUT     UN  APPOINTED     MEN 

The  press  of  }resterday,  December  i6,  1909,  informs  us 
that  "  having  made  unsatisfactory  progress  in  their  fight 
to  induce  the  Board  of  Education  to  appoint  more  men 
teachers  in  the  Elementary  Schools,  the  men  who  are  on  the 
eligible  list  waiting  for  appointment  have  decided  to  take 
the  matter  to  the  courts.  They  hope  to  secure  a  decision 
which  will  declare  illegal  the  practice  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation of  making  two  eligible  lists — one  for  men  and  the 
other  for  women  teachers." 

Thus  are  the  men  teachers  unwittingly,  I  think,  and  un- 
willingly, I  believe,  assisting  us.  We,  too,  want  one  eligible 
list  as  the  result  of  one  examination,  but  we  also  want  one 
salary  for  the  position  to  which  the  license  thus  gained  en- 
titles its  holder." 

Again  the  press  states:  "The  Association  of  Unap- 
pointed  Men  Teachers  will  hold  a  meeting  December  17, 
1909,  at  which  committees  will  be  appointed  to  continue 
the  work  with  members  of  the  Board  of  Education  in  order 
to  convince  them  that  men  ought  to  be  appointed." 

In  Superintendent  Maxwell's  report  for  1906-7,  Asso- 
ciate Superintendent  Davis,  then  Chairman  of  the  Super- 
intendent's Committee  on  Nomination,  Transfer  and  Ap- 
pointment, discussing  the  supply  of  teachers,  says:  "The 
scarcity  of  regular  class  teachers  has  continued  during  the 
past  year.  Each  eligible  list  has  been  exhausted  as  soon  as 
received,  in  order  that  every  available  teacher  might  be 
placed  in  the  schools  at  once.  The  cause  of  this  scarcity 
as  related  to  the  sources  of  supply  and  to  the  conditions 
giving  rise  to  an  increased  demand,  was  explained  in  the 
annual  report  of  the  City  Superintendent.  The  number  of 
declinations  of  appointment  has  added  to  our  difficulties  in 

106 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         107 

this  matter,  there  having  been  72  decHnations  by  men  and 
117  by  women  during  the  year." 

In  the  same  report,  Superintendent  Davis  said :  "  The 
number  of  men  teachers  as  compared  with  the  number  of 
women  teachers  employed  in  the  pubHc  schools  will  always 
remain  small  because  of  the  natural  restrictions  upon  their 
employment.  Men  should  not  be  assigned  to  schools  that 
are  exclusively  for  girls,  nor  should  they  be  assigned  to 
teach  little  children  in  classes  of  the  first  three  years,  even 
when  these  classes  are  composed  entirely  of  boys.  As  these 
restrictions  shut  man  from  the  vastly  greater  part  of  the 
school  system  it  should  be  plain  that  the  opportunities  for 
their  appointment  must  be  comparatively  few." 

"  In  making  nominations  the  Board  of  Supermtendents 
has  considered  only  the  conditions  in  the  individual  schools ; 
and  when  these  have  required  the  services  of  men,  nomina- 
tions have  been  made  accordingly." 

"Every  request  made  by  principals  for  men  teachers 
has  been  complied  with,  and  whenever  in  the  judgment  of 
the  committee  the  services  of  a  man  teacher  seemed  de- 
sirable in  any  school  a  nomination  was  made  without  such 
request." 

On  December  11,  1907,  in  order  to  find  out  the  reasons 
for  the  shortage  of  teachers,  the  Board  of  Education  passed 
the  following  resolution,  offered  by  Mr.  Cosgrove: 
"  Whereas,  The  city  superintendent  has  heretofore  reported 
to  this  board  that  a  number  of  classes  have  been  deprived 
of  teachers,  both  regular  and  substitute,  for  some  time; 
therefore  be  it 

"  Resolved,  That  the  committee  on  elementary  schools 
be  requested  to  inquire  into  the  causes  leading  to  this  re- 
sult, and  report  the  result  of  such  inquiry  to  this  board, 
together  with  such  recommendations  as  it  may  deem  ad- 
visable to  remedy  the  situation." 

On  January  25,  1908,  the  Glohe  stated:  "Usually  the 
list  from  the  January  examinations  is  not  announced  until 
April,  this  year  conditions  regarding  vacancies  are  such  as 
to  demand  a  speedy  remedy.  Heretofore  it  has  been  the  cus- 
tom of  the  board  to  appoint  the  teachers  from  the  January 


io8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

eligible  list  for  service  in  the  fall,  but  this  year  the  list  will 
be  immediately  exhausted." 

Associate  Superintendent  Edson  in  Superintendent  Max- 
well's Tenth  Annual  Report  writes :  "  The  usual  scarcity 
of  teachers  prevailed  until  near  the  close  of  the  school 
year,  when  a  special  examination  was  held  in  the  month  of 
April,  1908,  to  accommodate  teachers  from  outside  the 
city." 

'*  On  the  other  hand,"  says  Superintendent  Edson  in  Mr. 
Maxwell's  Tenth  Annual  Report,  "  the  employment  of  men 
involves  greatly  increased  expense.  As  a  business  propo- 
sition, therefore,  it  does  not  seem  wise  or  necessary  to  have 
a  large  number  of  men  in  any  teaching  corps.  As  far  as 
any  necessity  exists,  a  few  will  do  as  well  as  more." 

All  in  all,  one  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  Superin- 
tendent Edson  is  not  worried  bv  the  "  lack  of  men 
teachers." 

It  is  often  stated  that  "  Equal  Pay  "  will  drive  men  out 
of  the  schools.  It  is  evident  that  "  Unequal  Pay  "  is  keep- 
ing them  out.  The  daily  press  for  over  a  year  has  contained 
letters  from  these  men  teachers,  complaining  that  they  are 
not  appointed,  and  the  men  on  the  eligible  list  have  now 
organized  into  what  is  called  "  The  Association  of  Unap- 
pointed  Men  Teachers."  They  have  compiled  facts  show- 
ing that  since  June,  1908,  1500  women  and  only  39  men 
have  been  appointed.  This  Association  has  recently  pre- 
sented a  petition  to  the  Board  of  Education,  praying  for 
appointment. 

Following  are  some  samples  of  their  plaints : 

Letters  to  Globe: 

October  13,  1909:  "Since  February,  1908,  196  have 
passed  the  examination.  Only  15  appointed."  "  To  see  over 
1000  women  and  young  girls  (many  of  whom  had  barely 
succeeded  in  getting  the  necessary  rating  of  70%,  and  had 
not  yet  demonstrated  their  capability)  appointed  before 
them.  To  bitterly  realize  that  most  of  these  girls  ap- 
pointed had  passed  the  examinations  later  than  they." 

May  17,  1909:    "Three  men  out  of  a  total  of  over  100 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         109 

were  appointed  last  month.  And  as  it  happened,  one  of  the 
three  was  a^  reinstated  teacher  at  that.  The  merging  of  the 
present  and  the  coming  eligible  list  will  mean  that  some  of 
us,  already  despairingly  distant  from  the  top  will  be  pushed 
still  farther  down  into  the  realm  of  almost  utter  hopless- 
ness."  *'  By  education  and  training  they  (the  male 
teachers)  are  Utted  for  no  other  work."  "  Yet  an  examina- 
tion for  License  No.  One  for  both  men  and  women  will 
take  place  in  the  early  part  of  June.  Such  a  state  of  affairs 
strikes  me  as  paradoxical.  Why  create  a  large  supply  when 
there  is  no  demand  ?  " 

Matthew  J.  writes :  "  The  men  on  the  No.  One  list  this 
year  seem  to  be  singularly  fortunate ( ?).  They  were  noti- 
fied of  their  having  passed  way  back  in  July.  .  .  .  The 
schools  open  and  no  men  are  appointed.  They  wait  two 
months,  and  have  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  the  enlivening 
spectacle  of  250  women  appointed  and  no  men.  They  wait 
another  month  and  see  the  entire  list  of  women  appointed 
and  still  no  men,  etc." 

Causal  Pugntndo  Habemus,  June  29,  1909 :  *'  I  learned 
from  your  paper  that  the  board  refused  to  appoint  men 
because  of  lack  of  funds?  Are  we  caused  to  suffer  because 
we  are  men?  If,  then,  men  are  needed,  but  are  on  the  other 
hand,  *  more  expensive  than  women,'  why  not  apportion 
appointments  according  to  the  expense?  Why  not  appoint 
three  women  to  every  two  men?  etc." 

Men  teachers  are  quite  willing,  that  women  should  suffer 
because  they  are  women,  but  what  an  outrage  that  they 
should  be  caused  to  suffer  because  they  are  men.  Ap- 
parently C.  P.  H.  does  not  realize  that  his  plan  would  not 
fill  so  many  vacancies.  But  what  does  it  matter  whether 
the  children  have  teachers  or  not,  so  long-  as  more  men 
teachers  get  places? 

And  a  citizen  writes :  "  Apropos  of  the  recent  letters  in 
the  school  columns  of  The  Globe,  it  is  not  edifying  to  note 
how  ardently  men  will  long  for  harmony  '  in  the  face  of 
danger '  when  they  are  the  ones  to  whom  danger  has  her 
face  turned. 

"  I  write  as  a  citizen  who  has  taken  a  keen  interest  for 


no    EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

moths  in  the  brave  struggle  of  the  women  teachers  against 
the  blatant  injustice  done  them  in  the  present  salary 
schedule. 

"  Throughout  that  time  I  have  seen  few  statements  from 
men  teachers  of  sympathy  toward  the  women  in  their  fight 
for  justice.  On  the  contrary,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
women  sought  inl  no  way  to  injure  the  men,  the  attitude  of 
the  latter  has  openly  been  and  intentionally  hostile  to  the 
women's  cause. 

"  Now  that  they  '  are  facing  danger '  these  gallant  gen- 
tlemen are  growing  tired  of  '  the  sad  story  of  contention ' 
that  is  injuring  the  dignity  of  the  profession.  It  would 
have  seemed  more  in  keeping  with  their  dignity  and  that 
of  their  profession  had  they  come  to  this  conclusion  when 
they  had  favors  to  confer  instead  of  favors  to  gain. 

"  Manhattan,  Dec.  i8.  Frank  Maynard." 

That  the  Board  continued  to  be  concerned  over  the 
shortage  of  teachers  appears  in  a  report  submitted  to  the 
Board  of  Education,  November  lo,  1909: 

"  The  committee  on  elementary  schools  respectfully  re- 
ports that  it  has  given  careful  consideration  to  the  motion 
offered  by  Mr.  Cosgrove  at  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of 
Education  on  October  13th  (1909),  to  the  effect  that  this 
committee  be  requested  to  report  to  the  Board  the  number 
of  vacancies  which  exist  in  the  elementary  schools  at  the 
present  time,  how  many  of  these  vacancies  can  properly 
be  filled  by  men,  and  also  as  to  the  advisability  of  appoint- 
ing men  thereto.  The  number  of  vacancies  existing  at  the 
time  was  about  300,  most  of  which  were  filled  by  the  ap- 
pointment at  the  last  meeting  of  the  Board  of  250  women 
and  24  men,  to  take  effect  November  first,  not  counting 
thirty-five  teachers  of  special  subjects.  It  has  been  the 
policy  of  the  board  of  superintendents  to  assign  men 
teachers  only  to  boys  or  mixed  classes,  with  which  policy 
your  committee  has  -been  and  is  in  accord." 


CHAPTER   X 

FALSE  CRY  OF  SCARCITY  OF  HIGH  SCHOOL  MEN 

In  view  of  the  facts  presented  herewith,  it  is  difficult  not 
to  believe  that  there  has  been  deliberate  and  wilful  misrep- 
resentation by  those  who  have  been  clamoring  for  increased 
salaries  for  high  school  men  teachers  on  the  ground  that 
there  is  a  scarcity  of  such  teachers. 

The  figures  in  the  following  table  are  taken  from  Su- 
perintendent Maxwell's  Annual  Report  for  year  ending 
July  31,  1908.     (See  table  next  page.) 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  while  only  44  per  cent,  of  the 
pupils  in  the  high  schools  are  boys,  that  47  per  cent,  of  the 
teachers  in  the  same  schools  are  men.  What  authorities 
demand  more  men?  Many  of  us  think  that  if  the  percent- 
age of  high  school  men  teachers  equals  the  percentage  of 
boy  pupils,  any  reasonable  demand  should  be  satisfied. 

The  preponderance  of  men  cannot  be  justified  on  the 
ground  that  men  are  better  prepared  because  according  to 
eminent  authority  men  have  less  education  as  a  preparation 
for  teaching  in  the  secondary  public  schools  of  the  United 
States  than  women,  and  they  remain  in  teaching  very  little 
longer  than  the  opposite  sex.  Professor  Edward  L.  Thorn- 
dike  of  the  Teachers'  College,  Columbia  University, 
reached  these  conclusions  as  the  result  of  a  careful  investi- 
gation into  the  subject,  and  presented  them  in  a  publica- 
tion entitled  "  The  Teaching  Staff  of  Secondary  Schools 
in  the  United  States,"  made  at  the  request  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education.  Professor  Thorndike  presents 
a  variety  of  significant  facts  with  reference  to  education, 
experience  and  salaries  of  teachers  in  our  secondary 
schools.  The  report  develops  the  fact  that  over  five-ninths 
of  the  women  have  as  long  an  education  as  has  the  median 
man,  and  not  quite  two-fifths  of  the  women  have  taught  as 
long  as  the  median  man. 


112         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

Further   evidence  of  the   spuriousness   of   this   cry   of 
"  Scarcity  of  High  School  Mtn  "  is  given  by  Examiner 


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Waher  L.  Hervey,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  high  school 
teachers'  examinations  in  an  appendix  to  Dr.  Maxwell's 
last  annual  report,  that  the  plentiful  supply  has  "  made  it 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         113 

possible  to  apply  a  correspondingly  rigid  principle  of  selec- 
tion not  only  in  respect  of  scholarship  and  teaching  ability, 
but  particularly  in  respect  of  use  of  English  and  person- 
ality." 

"  It  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  schools  that  such  a  sit- 
uation exists.  It  is  always  unfortunate  when,  in  order 
merely  to  supply  an  urgent  demand  for  teachers,  it  is  neces- 
sary, as  it  sometimes  has  been  necessary,  to  license  candi- 
dates who  for  any  reason  are  doubtful  or  '  on  the  line,' 
or  who  have  an  insufficient  command  of  English;  or  who, 
in  dress,  manner  or  personal  habits,  are  careless  or  unre- 
fined ;  or  who,  though  satisfying  these  and  many  other  re- 
quirements, lack  those  traits  of  responsibility,  public  spirit 
and  devotion,  without  which  a  teacher  may  indeed  give 
instruction  in  a  subject,  but  cannot  be  an  effective  and 
loyal  member  of  the  faculty  of  a  school." 

In  April,  1908,  the  board  was  forced  by  scarcity  of 
teachers  to  hold  a  special  and  extra  examination  for 
teachers  for  elementary  schools.  In  striking  contrast  was 
the  condition  affecting  high  schools.  For  years  it  has  been 
the  custom  to  hold  an  examination  for  high  school  teachers 
in  April  and  another  in  October.  In  1908,  however,  there 
there  were  so  many  teachers  available  that  the  April  ex- 
amination was  abandoned,  and  the  October  examination 
advanced  to  September.  Furthermore,  the  announcement 
for  the  September  examination  showed  that  it  would  cover 
but  few  subjects,  as  in  the  others  the  supply  was  sufficient. 

The  Globe,  January  10,  1910,  said :  "  There  is  no  dearth 
of  applicants  for  positions  as  teachers  in  the  local  schools 
now.  The  November  high  school  tests  brought  out  nearly 
five  hundred  applicants."  Yet  Superintendent  Stevens  is 
quoted  as  saying :  "  We  must  either  offer  better  induce- 
ments or  lower  our  standard  for  high  school  men." 

Other  evidence  is  given  in  press  comments  as:  On  Oc- 
tober 20,  1909,  the  Globe  published  the  following : 

"  At  the  recent  hearings  on  the  budget  statements  have 
been  made  frequently  which  tended  to  show  that  the  supply 
of  teachers  for  high  schools  was  much  less  than  the  demand 
and  that  such  condition  did  not  exist  in  the  elementary 


114         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

schools.  Certain  facts  appear  to  have  been  overlooked. 
Examinations  for  elementary  school  teachers  are  held  regu- 
larly in  January  and  June  each  year,  irrespective  of  the 
condition  of  the  eligible  list.  Examinations  for  teachers 
in  the  various  subjects  in  high  schools  are  held  only  when 
the  list  in  that  particular  subject  is  nearly  exhausted.  Thus 
at  the  present  time  when  the  high  school  teachers  are  so 
much  in  demand,  the  examination  for  such  teachers  to  be 
held  in  November  will  cover  only  a  few  subjects.  The 
limited  demand  is  due  in  large  measure  to  failure  to  hold 
examinations, 

"  Under  date  of  October  27,  City  Superintendent  Max- 
well announces  that  the  November  examinations  will  also 
include  tests  for  library  assistants  and  for  men  teachers  of 
stenography,  mechanical  drawing,  English  and  joinery,  and 
for  men  and  women  teachers  of  commercial  branches  and 
freehand  drawing. 

"  Need  more  be  said  ?  " 

And  later, 

"  Hundreds  of  college  graduates  and  experienced 
teachers  are  anxious  to  teach  in  the  local  high  schools  at  the 
salaries  now  paid.  At  the  examinations  for  licenses  to  teach 
in  those  schools  last  week  there  were  present  460  applicants, 
the  largest  number  which  has  taken  such  examinations  in 
years. 

"  One  hundred  and  nine  took  the  test  for  teachers  of 
German,  while  86  wanted  to  teach  Latin.  The  figures  for 
the  other  licenses  were:  Biology  47,  French  17,  English 
57,  chemistry  35,  stenography  and  typewriting  14,  wood 
turning  2,  forge  work  i,  joinery  3,  mechanical  drawing  6, 
freehand  drawing  17,  music  8,  commercial  branches  18, 
clerical  assistant  31,  and  library  assistant  9. 

"  These  facts  seem  to  bear  out  the  contention  of  TJie 
Globe  that  the  seeming  scarcity  of  teachers  for  high  schools 
is  due  to  failure  to  hold  examinations  at  regular  intervals. 
It  has  been  the  custom  to  defer  examinations  for  high 
school  teachers  until  the  existing  lists  are  nearly  exhausted." 

But  most  significant  of  all  is  the  action  indicated  in  the 
following  from  the  Globe  of  February  8,  1910: 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        115 

"  Plans  for  increasing  the  supply  of  high  school  teachers 
without  in  any  way  lessening  the  qualifications  or  lowering 
the  standards  were  blocked  at  a  Board  of  Education  meet- 
ing recently  by  Chairman  A.  Stern  of  the  special  commit- 
tee on  increase  of  teachers'  salaries.  The  reasons  given 
were  that  he  feared  that  the  standards  might  be  lowered 
and  that  to  increase  the  supply  of  high  school  teachers 
would  result  in  doing  azuay  zvith  the  chief  argument  used 
to  secure  higher  salaries  for  the  men  in  the  high  schools. 
Dr.  Maxwell's  assurance  that  the  standards  would  not  be 
lowered  and  that  experienced  local  teachers  now  in  their 
prime  would  be  secured,  was  of  no  avail.  Mr.  Stern  with- 
drew his  signature  from  the  report,  which,  he  stated,  had 
been  presented  to  him  only  fifteen  minutes  before,  and  as 
he  made  the  third  member  whose  signature  made  the  re- 
port possible  it  had  to  be  withdrawn  from  consideration. 

"  The  report  from  the  by-law  committee  provided  an 
amendment  to  the  qualifications  for  eligibility  for  license 
as  assistant  teachers  to  the  effect  that  the  requirement  of 
two  years  experience  in  grades  of  the  '  last  two  years '  of 
the  elementary  school  course  for  persons  not  college  grad- 
uates should  be  changed  to  '  last!  four  years  '  of  the  elemen- 
tary school  course. 

"Will  not  the  change,"  said  A.  Stern,  "  result  in  securing 
a  poorer  kind  of  teacher  ?  " 

"  It  is  my  deliberate  judgment,"  replied  Dr.  Maxwell, 
"that  the  change  will  not  result  in  inferior  teachers.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  they  are  to  come  from  our  own 
schools.  In  the  upper  grades  are  most  of  the  older  teachers 
in  the  system,  and  under  this  plan  an  opportunity  will  be 
given  to  those  who  have  served  from  seven  to  twelve  years 
in  the  schools,  to  those  just  in  their  prime,  to  secure  posi- 
tions in  the  high  schools.  The  examiners  will  not  let  down 
the  bars.  This  board  can  well  trust  them  to  see  to  it  that 
only  those  well  qualified  for  the  work  are  licensed." 

"  This  reply  was  a  disappointment  to  Mr.  Stern,  who  ex- 
plained that  the  change  was  more  serious  than  he  thought 
when  he  signed  the  report.  *  It  was  presented  to  our  com- 
mittee only  about  fifteen  minutes  ago,  and  I  signed  it,  but 


Ii6         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

on  further  consideration  I  believe  we  should  go  slow. 
Can't  the  members  see  how  dangerous  it  would  be  just  at 
this  time  when  we  are  trying  to  secure  increases  in  salaries 
to  do  anything  to  increase  the  supply f  We  have  re- 
peatedly sought  increases  for  the  men  teachers  in  the  high 
schools,  and  one  of  the  main  reasons  for  doing  so  was  the 
inability  to  get  teachers,  and  now  it  is  proposed  to  do  away 
with  the  demand  by  stating  that  we  can  get  teachers  and 
will  get  them  at  a  cheaper  rate.  I  do  not  believe  we  will  get 
the  proper  type  of  men  if  we  alter  the  qualifications.  At 
any  rate,  let  us  wait  a  while  before  we  act.' " 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE    FAMILY-TO-SUPPORT    ARGUMENT 

It  is  rather  a  sad  commentary  on  our  profession  that  its 
men  members  are  the  only  men  who  object  to  women  mem- 
bers of  the  same  profession  getting  the  same  pay  for  the 
same  work.  Who  ever  heard  of  a  man  lawyer  fighting  a 
woman  lawyer  in  this  way?  A  man  doctor  arguing  that 
another  doctor  should  give  her  services  for  less  pay  simply 
because  she  happened  to  be  a  woman?  And  leaving  the 
professions,  what  attitude  do  we  find  the  men  who  form 
our  "  Labor  Unions  "  taking  on  this  question  ?  They  form 
a  solid  phalanx  on  the  side  of  "  Equal  Pay."  The  most 
powerful  of  all  unions  in  many  respects — "  Big  Six  " — has 
a  By-Law  making  it  a  misdemeanor  to  pay  a  woman  less 
than  a  man  working  at  the  same  form.  AH  Labor  Unions 
fight  "two  prices  on  a  job." 

Is  it  not  sad  to  see  men,  American  men,  shoving  aside, 
trampling  down,  and  snatching  the  life  preservers  from 
their  sisters?  I  say  life  preservers  seriously  and  mean  it 
literally.  For  to  the  woman  obliged  to  support  herself,  is 
not  her  wage  earning  ability  truly  a  life  preserver.  How 
can  any  man  except  one  whom  she  is  legally  privileged  to 
assist,  take  from  a  woman  any  part  of  the  wages  she  has 
earned,  and  remain  worthy  even  in  his  own  eyes  ?  The  ex- 
cuses he  makes  to  himself  and  to  others  in  the  attempt  to 
justify  his  act,  tend  to  belittle  him  more  and  more. 

And  yet  some  men  whose  blood  sisters  have  by  teaching 
provided  the  money  to  enable  them,  their  brothers,  to  be- 
come teachers,  oppose  those  very  sisters  in  their  efforts  to 
obtain  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work."  Can  one  ask  for 
stronger  proof  of  the  insidious  danger  to  our  manhood 
which  lurks  in  unjust  standards  of  salary  for  service  ren- 
dered? The  true  man,  the  good  man,  ought  to  put  the 
woman  who  earns  a  respectable  living,  on  a  pedestal,  as  a 

117 


Ii8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

beacon  of  encouragement  to  other  women  to  show  them 
one  who  wanted  clothes  to  wear,  and  food  to  eat,  and  a 
place  to  live,  and  who  obtained  them  by  honorable  labor. 


THE   FAMILY-TO-SUPPORT   ARGUMENT 

I  must  say  at  the  outset  that  in  my  opinion  considerations 
of  family  responsibilities  have  no  place  in  the  fixing  of 
Salary  Schedules.  I  hold  that  salary  is  for  service,  and 
should  be  measured  by  the  service  rendered,  irrespective  of 
the  size,  weight,  color,  complexion,  race,  previous  condition 
of  servitude,  height,  length  of  nose,  location  of  ear,  charac- 
ter of  costume,  religion,  size  of  shoe,  height  of  heel  worn, 
hair  or  lack  of  hair  on  the  face  or  head,  number  of  children, 
nephews,  nieces,  aunts,  grandfathers,  parents — real  or  in- 
law— or  other  dependent  relatives,  of  the  person  rendering 
the  service.  I'm  sure  if  a  man  comes  to  sweep  off  the  snow 
from  your  front  stoop,  you  do  not  ask  him  if  he  is  married 
and  how  many  children  he  has,  in  order  to  fix  the  price  for 
his  work. 

But  for  the  sake  of  argument  and  of  the  opportunity  to 
ask  a  question  or  two,  we  will  consider  this — the  most  com- 
mon and  persistent  of  the  arguments  proposed  by  our  male 
opponents.  A  man  who  is  a  teacher  should  be  given  a 
higher  salary  than  a  woman  who  is  a  teacher,  because  a 
man  has — or  may  have — a  family  to  support. 

Notice,  I  say  "  a  man  who  is  a  teacher."  I  do  this  be- 
cause I  have  never  heard  a  man  who  is  a  doctor,  or  a  law- 
yer, or  a  plumber,  or  a  grocer,  or  a  baseball  player,  or  a 
barber,  or  a  janitor,  propose  said  argument. 

Now,  if  salary,  is  to  be  measured  by  the  size  of  the  salary 
receiver's  family,  why  do  we  give  Mayor  Gaynor  with  six 
children  the  same  salary  we  gave  Mayor  McClellan  with 
no  children?  Or  why  does  our  Board  of  Education  give 
Superintendent  X.  with  no  children  as  much  salary  as  it 
gives  Superintendent  Y.  with  nine  children?  Again,  has 
not  Miss  M.,  who  has  to  support  an  invalid  father  and  an 
uncle  in  an  insane  asylum,  the  same  right  to  consideration 
as  Mr.  N.  who  has  a  wife  and  a  son  to  support? 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         119 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  these  considerations  have  any- 
place in  the  fixing  of  salaries,  Miss  M.  should  be  given  the 
higher  salary,  because,  as  has  been  well  put  by  Miss  Ennis, 
Secretary  of  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers,  every  child  is  in  the  nature  of  an  endowment 
policy  for  his  parents,  as  he  is  a  potential  wage-earner, 
w^hile  the  relatives  dependent  on  the  woman  teacher  are, 
as  a  rule,  those  from  whom  she  can  look  for  no  assistance 
in  her  old  age. 

Another  member  of  our  Executive  Committee,  Miss 
Clara  Calkins,  disposed  neatly  of  this  argument,  by  sug- 
gesting to  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  who  inter- 
posed this  objection  to  "  Equal  Pay,"  that  the  Board  fix  a 
salary  for  a  position  and  then  add  a  bonus  for  each  child 
or  dependent. 

The  "  Family-to-Support,"  or  "  Family- Wage  "  argu- 
ment ranks  above  even  the  "  Supply-and-Demand "  argu- 
ment in  the  age  and  the  frequency  of  its  use  by  our  male 
teacher  opponents. 

Is  it  not  pitiful  to  find  the  very  men  who  are  reputed  to 
be  hired  for  their  "Manly  Influence"  so  unmanly?  How 
any  self-respecting  wife  and  mother  can  permit  her  hus- 
band to  go  around  publicly  begging  because  he  married 
her  and  with  her  became  the  fortunate  possessor  of  chil- 
dren, is  beyond  my  comprehension.  Why  is  she  satisfied 
to  be  on  a  different  plane  as  a  wife  than  is  the  girl  who 
married  a  doctor,  or  a  lawyer,  or  a  merchant,  or  a  plum- 
ber, or  a  street  sweeper  ? 

I  can  only  account  for  her  attitude  by  assuming  that  she 
thinks  as  her  husband  does,  and  I  account  for  his  attitude 
by  believing  one  of  three  things : 

(i)  that  he  did  not  take  up  the  sacred  profession  of 
teaching  because  he  found  it  to  be  his  true  vocation,  but 
rather  because  it  was  an  easy  road  to  an  assured  income; 

(2)  that  he  belong  to  a  race  whose  traditions  have  always 
always  placed  woman  on  a  lower  plane  than  a  man;  or 

(3)  that  he  is  of  the  conservative  type,  dead  to  all 
progress,  that  believes  because  a  condition  "has  been,"  it 
should  continue  to  be. 


I20         EQUAL   PAY   TOR   EQUAL    WORK 

I  am  firmly  convinced  that  while  teaching  is  a  natural 
vocation  for  most  women,  it  is  rarely  the  true  vocation  of 
a  man.  And  that  those  who  enter  the  profession  without 
the  love  for  it  which  overshadows  even  the  pocket  returns, 
invariably  deteriorate.  Their  lives  are  spent  largely  among 
those  whom  they  consider  their  subordinates — in  position 
or  in  salary,  if  not  in  intellect — the  children  and  the  women 
teachers.  They  grow  to  have  an  inordinate  opinion  of 
themselves.  No  matter  how  ridiculous  or  absurd  or  unfair 
may  be  the  attitudes  they  take  and  the  things  they  say, 
there  is  no  one  to  say,  "  Nonsense ! "  as  would  one  of  his 
peers  in  the  outer  world.  The  novelist  David  Graham 
Phillips  in  the  following  description  of  one  of  his  characters 
expresses  my  opinion  better  than  I  can  myself:  "Peter 
was  not  to  blame  for  his  weakness.  He  had  not  had  the 
chance  to  become  otherwise.  He  had  been  deprived  of  that 
hand-to-hand  strife  with  life  which  alone  makes  a  man 
strong.  Usually,  however,  the  dangerous  truth  as  to  his 
weakness  was  well  hidden  by  the  fictitious  seeming  of 
strength  which  obstinacy,  selfishness  and  the  adulation  of 
a  swarm  of  sycophants  and  dependents  combine  to  give  a 
man  of  means  and  position." 

Recently  in  one  of  our  schools,  a  male  assistant  to  the 
principal  resigned.  The  vacancy  thus  caused  was  filled 
by  a  woman.  This  woman  is  doing  the  same  work  as  the 
man  did,  but  with  greater  satisfaction  to  the  principal. 
But  she  is  being  paid  $800  a  year  less  than  the  man  was. 

In  another  school  I  know  there  was  a  woman  assistant 
to  principal.  As  a  grade  teacher  she  had  married  and  re- 
signed, expecting — as  most  girls  do  when  they  marry — 
that  she  wouldn't  have  to  work  outside  the  home  any  more. 
But  her  husband  became  a  victim  of  tuberculosis,  and  they 
went  to  Colorado  in  search  of  health  for  him.  Time  passed, 
their  funds  were  exhausted,  the  invalid  was  unable  to  work, 
and  so  they  came  back,  and  the  wife — after  certifying,  as 
our  by-laws  require,  that  her  husband  was  unable  to  sup- 
port her  and  had  been  so  for  two  years — was  reappointed. 
Later  she  secured  promotion  to  assistant  to  principal.  Dur- 
ing the  day  she  labored  in  a  large,  progressive  school,  com- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         121 

posed  almost  wholly  of  children  born  in  Russia,  or  of  Rus- 
sian parentage.  At  night  she  taught  a  class  of  foreign 
men.  Now,  although  she  actually  had  a  family  to  support, 
she  was  receiving  $800  a  year  less  than  a  man  in  her  posi- 
tion would  receive.  A  married  man?  Oh,  no,  not  neces- 
sarily. He  might  be  a  millionaire  bachelor,  or  the  pet  of 
a  wealthy  wife — it  is  only  necessary  for  him  to  be  a 
"  male  "  assistant  to  principal.  Possibly  on  account  of  her 
family  responsibilities,  probably  because  she  was  ambitious, 
she  strove  for  a  principalship.  During  the  school  year,  she 
traveled  to  Columbia  University  and  took  post-graduate 
courses  after  school  and  on  Saturdays ;  during  the  summer, 
when  she  should  have  been  resting,  she  was  studying  with 
Professor  This  and  Professor  That.  Last  September  she 
took  the  examination  for  a  principal's  license:  in  October, 
she  died — typhoid,  the  doctors  said.  The  husband  she  had 
cheerfully  and  lovingly  supported  for  years  survived  her 
but  a  few  weeks. 

Why  have  I  dwelt  on  this?  To  show  the  absurdity  of 
the  "  family  wage  "  argument  of  the  male  teacher. 

A  circular  recently  issued  by  some  of  our  male-teacher- 
opponents  evidenced  this  pitiable  state  of  mind.  Following 
are  some  quotations  with  comment: 

3.  "  To  the  employee  that  wage  is  just  which  furnishes 
the  living  wage — understanding  thereby  living  in  accord- 
ance with  the  physical,  mental  and  moral  standards  of  the 
class  of  laborers." 

One  is  forced  to  ask,  Who  will  set  the  physical,  mental, 
moral  standards  that  differentiate  a  teacher  from  a 
preacher,  doctor,  lawyer,  artist,  engineer,  etc.? 

4.  "To  the  Adult  man  teacher  that  wage  is  just  which 
furnishes  such  a  living  wage  for  the  average  family." 

Again  the  male  teacher  is  segregated  in  a  pitiful  class  of 
mendicants. 

6.  "A  mandatory  wage  greater  than  that  is  unjust  to 
the  employer.  His  liberality  must  be  limited  by  consider- 
ations of  the  quality  only  of  the  work." 

Pity  the  average  male  teacher  if  this  were  made  the  ac- 
tual standard  of  wages. 


122         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

8.  "  It  follows  that  from  the  standpoint  of  the  employer 
the  necessary  masculine  wage  is  an  unnecessary  feminine 
wage.  This  is,  I  believe,  cold-blooded  economic  law.  Sal- 
aries are  not  *  rewards  of  merit.'  They  are  the  market 
price  of  labor." 

In  what  new  dissertation  on  logic  and  economics  shall  we 
find  accepted  definitions  of  "  the  necessary  masculine  wage," 
"unnecessary  feminine  wage"?  Senator  F.,  in  opposing 
our  bill,  quoted,  "  Shall  the  single  woman,  in  teaching,  be 
given  the  married  woman's  wage?"  I  ask,  Why  not? — 
just  as  the  single  woman  in  washing,  in  farming,  in  mil- 
linery, in  nursing,  in  telephoning,  and  writing. 

9.  "Equalization  must  be  on  (i)  basis  above,  (2)  equal 
to,  or  (3)  lower  than  the  necessary  masculine  wage." 

Again  the  masculine  wage.  On  this  point  the  following 
letter  from  Mr.  Arthur  Gibb,  proprietor  of  Frederick 
Loeser  &  Co.,  one  of  the  largest  department  stores  in  the 
city,  employing  thousands  of  men  and  women  during  the 
year,  is  pertinent : 

"  Brooklyn,  March  5,  1908. 
"  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan. 

"Dear  Madam:  The  movement  has  my  entire  sympathy 
and  I  hope  you  will  be  successful  in  your  endeavor  to  have 
the  salaries  of  men  and  women  teachers  equalized.  To 
claim  that  a  man  should  have  more  pay  than  a  woman 
because  he  may  have  more  people  dependent  upon  him  is 
as  absurd  as  to  claim  that  a  man  with  six  children  should 
have  more  pay  than  one  with  none.  Neither  the  city  nor 
any  other  employer  should  consider  anything  hut  whether 
the  person  is  fitted  to  fill  the  place,  salary  being  based  on 
the  work  performed  and  not  on  sex. 

"  Yours  very  truly. 

"Arthur  Gibb." 

10.  "  If  on  either  of  the  first  two  theoretical  possibilities, 
it  is  unjust  to  the  employer,  so  far  as  the  present  corps  of 
women  teachers  are  concerned ;  it  is  unjust  to  women  can- 
didates, as  only  the  very  exceptional  women  will  be  taken ; 
unjust  to  the  schools,  as  women  will  he  replaced  by  men." 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         123 

We  appreciate  the  acknowledgment  that  the  schools 
would  suffer  if  women  should  be  replaced  by  men.  We 
note  the  continued  expression  of  distrust  of  the  Board  of 
Education. 

The  men  who  are  opposing  "  Equal  Pay "  seem  inca- 
pable of  "  seeing  true  " :  witness  the  crooked  reasoning  of 
the  following: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

"  Several  labor  unions  have  indorsed  the  female  teachers' 
plea  for  equal  pay.  The  men  teachers  want  to  submit 
through  the  Eagle  that  these  indorsements  have  been  se- 
cured without  a  fair  consideration  of  facts.  Notwithstand- 
ing that  the  male  teachers  are  making  a  distinctly  labor 
union  fight  to  maintain  a  high  standard  of  salary,  the  unions 
have  in  no  instance  called  for  the  men's  side.  Therefore, 
we  must  come  out  in  the  open  and  declare  our  posi- 
tion. 

"  Everybody  knows  that  the  mission  of  women  in  the 
labor  world  has  been  to  lower  wages.  Hence  the  hope  of 
every  labor  idealist:  the  elimination  of  women  from  the 
competitive  field.  And  how?  By  making  work  too  attrac- 
tive for  her  to  ever  want  to  leave  it  or  by  fixing  the  man's 
salary  according  to  the  low  standard  that  obtains  every- 
where for  the  woman?  Does  any  labor  unionist  want  his 
salary  measured  by  the  standard  his  boss  is  willing  to 
adopt  for  his  girl  laborers?  Would  labor  unionism  be  do- 
ing its  duty  by  the  millions  of  men  toiling  to  support  fam- 
ilies if  it  were  to  send  throughout  the  nation  the  edict  that 
wherever  a  woman  was  employed,  in  public  or  private  serv- 
ice, she  should  be  paid  as  much  as  her  male  co-worker — and 
more  pernicious  still — that  no  man  should  be  paid  a  dollar 
more  than  the  woman  employed  in  similar  service. 
Wouldn't  this  be  a  blow  at  the  very  vitality  of  unionism? 
Wouldn't  it  everywhere  regulate  the  man's  salary  by  the 
universally  lower  woman's  salary  ?  Ought  any  labor  union- 
ist demand  that  the  Legislature  of  New  York  enact  this 
precedent  ?  The  essence  of  unionism  is  antagonistic  to  class 
legislation.    Why,  then,  do  the  unions  (Jemand  laws  for  the 


124         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

female  school  teacher  that  they  would  deny  their  own  fe- 
male co-workers? 

"  The  men  teachers  of  New  York  are  not  making  a  fight 
to  hold  their  grip  on  the  dollar.  Few  of  them — an  insig- 
nificant minority — will  lose  a  cent  by  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion. Our  fight  is  not  for  those  that  are  in,  but  for  those 
who  are  to  come  in.  We  don't  want  a  $2,160  maximum  cut 
to  $1,635  fo''  the  young  man  entering  the  profession  now. 
We  don't  believe  that  the  salary  of  any  man  in  any  public 
activity  should  be  regulated  by  the  low  rate  that  time  and 
custom  have  universally  fixed  for  women. 

"  M.  T. 

"Brooklyn,  March  18,  1907." 


"  *  M.  T.'  is  evidently  unfamiliar  with  the  principles  gov- 
erning trade  unions,  or  he  would  have  known  that  they 
have  always  strenuously  objected  to  low-priced  labor, 
whether  it  is  of  men,  women  or  children;  that  they  have 
for  many  years  done  their  utmost  to  drive  children  out  of 
the  factories,  mills  and  mines;  that  they  have  everywhere 
lent  their  aid  and  assistance  to  women  to  organize  for 
higher  wages  and  less  hours  of  labor.  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  at  one  time  had  to  compete  with  woman 
labor  for  which  employing  printers  paid  less  per  thousand 
ems  than  for  that  of  men.  When  the  '  matter '  set  up  by 
the  women  was  corrected  and  ready  for  the  forms,  it  was 
just  as  valuable  as  was  that  set  up  by  the  men.  As  a  rule 
women  took  longer  to  set  a  thousand  ems,  and  sometimes 
their  proofs  contained  more  errors ;  but  as  they  had  to  make 
the  corrections  the  loss  was  theirs.  They,  therefore,  could 
not  earn  as  much  as  men,  even  though  they  had  received 
the  same  price  per  thousand.  There  were  women,  however, 
who  were  exceptions  to  that  rule,  and  could  do  as  much 
and  as  good  work  as  the  average  man.  Of  late  years, 
women  have  received  in  union  offices  the  same  rates  as  the 
men  for  piece  work. — Editor  Brooklyn  Eagle" 

Yet,  I  would  not  be  understood  as  despising  all  men 
who  choose  the  teaching  profession,  or  as  belittling  the 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK  125 

value  of  good  men  in  our  public  schools.  There  are  some 
splendid  men  in  our  system,  men  contact  with  whom  is 
beneficial  to  associates  and  pupils  alike.  Needless  to  say, 
they  all  love  justice,  and  are  therefore  all  warm  advocates 
of  "  Equal  Pay  "  schedules. 

Nevertheless,  I  pray  that  no  one  of  my  eight  nephews 
shall  feel  a  "  call "  to  teach  while  the  present  conditions, 
deadly  to  the  finest  moral  and  manly  virtues,  exist. 

One  of  the  best  things  that  has  been  written  in  connec- 
tion with  our  fight,  is  the  following  editorial.  It  was  the 
leader  in  the  New  York  Press  of  February  21,  1910: 

I "  Moral   Astigmatism 

"  We  imagine  that  disinterested  people  will  read  with  a 
feeling  of  mixed  censure  and  amusement  the  statement 
made  by  the  men  teachers  of  the  elementary  schools,  in  a 
pamphlet  addressed  to  the  Board  of  Education,  in  regard 
to  the  subject  of  equal  pay  for  men  and  women  teachers. 

"  They,  the  men,  have  come  out  against  equal  pay.  Per- 
fectly natural  action,  based  on  naive  selfishness,  is  likely 
to  provoke  a  smile,  mixed  with  unfavorable  criticism.  The 
men  are  afraid,  no  doubt,  that  if  the  women  receive  more 
pay,  they  (the  men)  will  not  receive  so  much,  or  that,  at 
any  rate,  their  pay  will  not  be  so  likely  to  be  raised. 

"  One  of  the  arguments  used  by  the  men  teachers  against 
equal  pay  is  that  such  a  system  would  tend  to  prevent  the 
women  marrying,  that  it  would  *  involve  the  establishment 
of  a  preferred  celibate  class.'  In  other  words,  these  men 
fear  a  system  by  which  women  may  no  longer  feel  them- 
selves forced  to  marry  for  economic  reasons.  They  say,  in 
eflfect,  '  keep  down  the  salaries  of  women,  for  if  we  give 
them  an  opportunity  for  independence  they  won't  marry 
us.' 

"Any  action  such  as  this  on  the  part  of  the  men  teach- 
ers which  tends  to  limit  the  growing  independence  of 
women  is  reactionary  and  short-sighted.  The  fact  that  so 
many  women  are  led  to  marry  in  order  to  improve  their 
material  condition  is  hateful  to  our  ideals.     It  is  probably 


126         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

true,  that  under  a  system  of  equal  pay,  where  services 
should  be  paid  for  irrespective  of  sex,  some  women  who 
now  marry  would  remain  single.  But  there  are  some  men 
to-day  who  remain  single  because  of  relative  economic  in- 
dependence, which  they  desire  to  maintain.  These  men 
are,  however,  relatively  few.  Women  are  as  instinctive  and 
as  normal  as  men  are,  and  independence,  which  they  feared 
to  lose,  would  prevent  very  few  from  marrying  when  they 
could  make  marriages  which  were  attractive  to  them.  In- 
dependence of  women  would  improve  marriage,  since  fewer 
women  would  marry  because  of  necessity.  By  the  same 
means  divorce  would  be  decreased,  and  human  happiness 
would  have  a  boom. 

"  But  these  wide  considerations  do  not  appeal  to  a  body 
of  men  teachers  whom  their  *  interests '  have  made  morally 
astigmatic.  Especially  from  teachers,  perhaps,  we  should 
demand  some  element  of  altruism  and  sympathy  with  so- 
cial progress." 

The  following  was  the  result  when  I  tried  to  outline  a 
debate  on  the  resolution:  That  men  teachers  should  be 
paid  a  higher  salary  than  women  teachers,  because  they 
have  families  to  support. 

Affirmative: 

Granted  (a)  That  it  is  the  fashion  to  look  upon  the  man 
as  the  support  of  the  family. 
Negative: 

Granted  (a)  That  salary  is  for  service  rendered. 

(b)  That  500,000  women  of  our  country  are  wage- 
earners. 

(c)  That  the  public  schools  are  not  included  in  the  elee- 
mosynary institutions  of  the  city,  county,  or  State. 

(d)  That  a  man  teacher  who  has  no  one  dependent  on 
him  is  paid  the  same  salary  as  one  who  has  many  depend- 
ent upon  him. 

(e)  That  the  man  teacher  whose  wife  is  worth  $100,000 
is  paid  the  same  salary  as  the  man  teacher  who  marries  a 
poor  school  teacher  who  has  no  money  or  property  income. 


Hon.   George  B.    McClellan, 

Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York  Who  Vetoed  the  "White" 
AND  the  "Gledhill-Foley"  "Equal  Pay"  Bills — 1907 •and 
1909. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        127 

(f)  That  most  women  teachers  have  many  dependent  on 
them. 

(g)  That  only  a  fraction  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  women 
teachers  have  no  one  dependent  on  them. 

(h)  That  our  own  school  records  contain  evidence  that 
some  women  teachers  are  supporting  even  their  husbands. 

(i)  That  men  doctors  do  not  demand  a  higher  fee  than 
women  doctors. 

(j)  That  men  typesetters  do  not  get  higher  pay  than 
women  typesetters. 

(k)  That  men  attendance  officers  in  our  public  school 
system  do  not  get  more  pay  than  women  attendance  officers. 
(I  have  one  woman  officer  who  supports  herself  and  three 
children  and  contributes  to  the  support  of  her  father.  I 
have  one  man  officer,  who  is  a  young  bachelor  and  con- 
tributes to  the  support  of  a  widowed  mother.) 

(1)  That  men  who  teach  in  our  evening  schools  are  not 
paid  more  than  women  who  teach  in  the  same  schools. 

(m)  That  men  who  teach  in  our  summer  schools  are  not 
paid  more  than  women  who  teach  in  the  same  schools. 

(n)  That  the  United  States  does  not  pay  the  man  teacher 
more  than  it  pays  the  woman  teacher. 

(o)  That  no  State  in  the  Union  except  New  York  fixes 
by  statute  a  salary  for  a  man  higher  than  that  for  a  woman 
occupying  the  same  position. 

(p)  That  New  York  State  nowhere  fixes  a  salary  for  a 
man  higher  than  that  for  a  woman  except  in  Section  1091 
of  the  Charter  of  the  City  of  New  York,  which  sets  the 
minimum  salaries  for  "female"  teachers  and  for  "male" 
teachers. 


CHAPTER    XII 

CIVIL  SERVICE  AND  SALARY  SCHEDULES 

All  we  ask  is  to  be  paid  on  the  same  basis  as  other 
Civil  Service  employees.  That  sex  of  worker  is  not  con- 
sidered either  by  the  city  or  the  State  in  other  departments 
is  amply  proven  by  the  following: 

"  New  York,  January  31,  1908. 
"My  dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"  Replying  to  your  letter  of  the  26th  instant,  I  have  to 
say  that  among  Civil  Service  employees  sex  is  not  made  a 
basis  for  difference  in  salary  when  the  position  held  is 
the  same. 

"  I  am  sending  you,  under  separate  cover,  a  copy  of  the 
Rules  and  Classifications  of  the  Municipal  Civil  Service 
Commission. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  Arthur  J.  O'Keefe, 
"J.  G.  C.  (Civil  Service  Commissioner)." 

The  quotations  below  are  interesting  in  this  connection: 

"  On  Wednesday,  Nov.  4,  the  Civil  Service  Commission 
will  conduct  an  examination  for  typewriting  copyist,  sec- 
ond grade,  for  the  Board  of  Water  Supply.  The  examina- 
tion is  open  to  both  men  and  women.  The  requirements 
are  identical.    The  salary  is  the  same  for  both  sexes. 

"  This  is  a  recognition  of  the  principle  of  *  equal  pay 
for  equal  work.'  This  is  the  principle  which  the  women 
teachers  ask  be  applied  in  the  public  schools. 

"  The  city  recognizes  it  in  one  branch  of  the  city  gov- 
ernment, why  not  in  the  schools  ?  " 

Another : 

"  *  Equal  pay  for  equal  work  *  is  not  a  new  principle  in 

128 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         129 

New  York  City  government.  Ample  evidence  of  this  fact 
is  presented  in  the  recent  announcements  of  future  Civil 
Service  examinations. 

"  On  Jan.  22  an  examination  will  be  held  for  the  posi- 
tion of  dietitian,  and  it  is  open  to  both  men  and  women 
on  equal  terms,  and  the  salary  ranges  from  $720  to  $1,500 
per  annum,  there  being  no  discrimination  on  account  of  sex. 

"  On  Jan.  25  an  examination  will  be  held  for  bacteriol- 
ogist. It  is  open  to  both  men  and  women,  and  the  salary 
is  $1,200.    There  is  no  sex  discrimination  here. 

"  Why  should  there  be  discrimination  in  the  pay  of 
teachers  ?  " 

Another : 

"  Since  the  agitation  started  by  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers,  that  the  position  of  public 
school  teacher  be  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Mu- 
nicipal Civil  Service  Commission,  subject  to  all  regulations 
of  civil  service,  the  interest  throughout  the  city  is  centering 
around  the  women  holding  any  and  all  governmental  posi- 
tions. The  transfer  on  Thursday  of  Miss  Anna  Murphy 
from  the  Department  of  Public  Charities  to  the  License 
Inspector's  Department  has  occasioned  considerable  com- 
ment. 

"  The  salary  paid  Miss  Murphy  is  the  same  as  that  paid 
to  any  of  the  men  holding  a  like  position. 

"  There  are  now  three  women  holding  the  position  of 
Inspector  of  Licenses,  each  at  a  salary  of  $1,500 — all  ap- 
pointed by  Commissioner  Bogart,  who  believes  that  in  every 
position,  be  it  public  or  private,  appointments  should  be 
made  irrespective  of  sex,  provided  the  incumbent  is  capable 
of  holding  such  position.     .     .     . 

"  The  appointment  of  Miss  Murphy  is  a  further  incentive 
to  the  women  school  teachers  to  have  all  positions  of  the 
Department  of  Education  placed  under  the  civil  service 
jurisdiction." 

Extract  from  our  Memorandum  to  the  Ivins  Charter 
Commission : 

"  Sirs:  The  twelve  thousand  members  of  the  Interbor- 
ough Association  of  Women  Teachers  of  the  City  of  New 


I30         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

York,  representing  every  grade  and  department  of  the  put)- 
Hc  school  service  from  kindergarten  to  district  superintend- 
ent inclusive,  is  unanimous  in  its  petition  that  you  recom- 
mend such  a  revision  of  the  Chapter  on  Education  as  will 
secure : 
"  A. — Salary  for  position,  regardless  of  sex  of  incumbent. 

and  in  support  thereof  we  beg  you  to  consider: 

"  I.  The  recent  opinion  of  Judge  Gray  of  the  New  York 
Court  of  Appeals  in  the  case  of  State  vs.  Williams,  in  which 
he  says: 

"  *  The  right  of  the  State  to  restrict  or  regulate  the  labor 
and  employment  of  children  is  unquestionable ;  but  an  adult 
female  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  ward  of  the  State,  or  in 
any  other  light  than  the  man  is  regarded  when  the  question 
relates  to  the  business  pursuit  or  calling. 

"  *  In  the  gradual  course  of  legislation  upon  the  rigl^ts  of 
a  woman  in  this  State  she  has  come  to  possess  all  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  man,  and  she  is  entitled  to  be  placed 
on  an  equality  of  rights  with  the  man.  Considerations  of 
her  physical  differences  are  sentimental  and  find  no  proper 
place  in  the  discussion  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  act.' 

"  2.  That  in  Section  1091  of  the  Charter,  the  State  in 
effect  said  to  the  Board  of  Education,  it  is  the  policy  of 
the  State  to  pay  women  teachers  less  than  men  teachers ; 
and  yet  a  careful  study  of  Chapter  577,  Laws  of  New 
York,  *  An  Act  making  Appropriations  for  the  Support  of 
Government' — the  only  other  Act  in  which  the  State  ap- 
pears as  an  employer  of  labor — fails  to  disclose  a  single 
indication  that  the  State  as  an  employer  considers  sex  of 
the  incumbent  in  fixing  the  salary  of  the  position.  For 
instance,  on  pages  19  and  20,  we  find : 

"  *  Department  of  Education. 
"  *  Commissioner's  Office. 
"  *  For  the  salaries : 

of  the  commissioner  of  education,  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars  ($7,500),  and  for  his  traveling  and 
other  expenses,  one  thousand  five  hundred   ($1,500), 


'EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        131 

pursuant  to  chapter  forty,  laws  of  nineteen  hundred 
four. 
secretary  to  the  commissioner,  one  thousand  five  hundred 

dollars  ($1,500)  ; 
of  the  employees  according  to  grade: 
sixth  grade,  two  employees,  one  thousand  dollars  each 
($2,000)  ; 

"  *  Administration  Division. 
chief,  three  thousand  dollars  ($3,000)  ; 
cashier,  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  ($2,500)  ; 
of  the  employees  according  to  grade: 

seventh  grade,  one  employee,  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars  ($1,500)  ; 
sixth  grade,  two  employees,  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred dollars  ($2,400)  ;  two  employees,  one  thousand 
dollars  each    ($2,000)  ; 
fifth  grade,  three  employees,  nine  hundred  dollars  each 

($2,700)  ; 
fourth  grade,   one   employee,   seven  hundred   twenty 
dollars  ($720).' 

"On  Page  27: 

"  *  Teacher^  Institutes. 
"*For  the  salaries: 

of  £ve  institute  conductors,  three  thousand  dollars  each 
($15,000)  ; 

of  a  special  instructor  in  drawing,  two  thousand  two 
hundred  dollars  ($2,200)  ; 

of  a  special  instructor  in  primary  work,  reading  and  liter- 
ature, two  thousand  dollars  ($2,000)  ; 

of  a  special  instructor  in  English,  one  thousand  two  hun- 
dred dollars  ($1,200).' 

"Page  53: 

"'State  Commission  in  Lunacy. 
"  *  For  the  salaries : 
of  the  medical  commissioner,  seven  thousand  and  five 

hundred  dollars    ($7,500)  ; 
legal  commissioner,  five  thousand  dollars   ($5,000) ; 


132         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

lay  commissioner,  five  thousand  dollars  ($5,000)  ; 
medical  inspector,   four  thousand  five   hundred   dollars 

($4,500)  ; 
secretary,   four  thousand  dollars   ($4,000)  ; 
auditor  of  the  state  hospital   estimates,   four  thousand 

dollars  ($4,000) ; 
of  the  employees  according  to  grades: 

eighth  grade,  one  employee,  one  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred dollars  ($1,700) ; 
seventh  grade,  three  employees,  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars  each  ($4,500)  ; 
sixth  grade,   four  employees,  one  thousand  and  two 

hundred  dollars  each  ($4,800)  ; 
fourth   grade,   one  employee,   seven   hundred   dollars 

($700) ; 
second  grade,  one    employee,    four    hundred    twenty 
dollars   ($420)/ 

"  Page  55. 

" '  Rochester  State  Hospital. 

" '  For  the  maintenance  of  the  Rochester  state  hospital, 
two  hundred  forty  thousand  dollars  ($240,000) ,  or  so  much 
thereof  as  may  be  necessary.' 

"Page  58. 

" '  Prison  Department. 
"  *  For  the  salaries : 

of  the  superintendent  of    state    prisons,    six    thousand 

dollars  ($6,000) ; 
superintendent's  clerk,  four  thousand  dollars  ($4,000)  ; 
two  stenographers,  one  thousand  dollars  each  (2,000)  ; 
messenger,   one  thousand  dollars    ($1,000) ; 
one  parole   officer,   one   thousand   five   hundred   dollars 

($1,500) ; 
two  parole  officers,  one  thousand  two  hundred  dollars 

each   ($2,400).' 
"  3.  We  pray  you  to  consider  also  in  this  connection 
whether  the  Civil  Service  Laws  are  not  being  violated  when 
persons  who  have  complied   with  the  same  requirements 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        133 

as  to  qualifications  and  examinations  in  competing  for  a 
position,  are  not  then  placed  in  order  of  standing  on  the 
same  eligible  list,  and  paid  the  same  salary  when  appointed 
to  the  same  position. 

"  In  conclusion,  we  reiterate :  The  InterborougH  As- 
sociation of  Women  Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
prays  that  in  your  report  you  will  recommend  such  a  re- 
vision of  the  Chapter  on  Education  as  will  remove  the 
injustices  to  women  in  the  salary  schedules  incorporated 
in  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
without,  however,  removing  from  the  teachers  of  this  city 
the  protection  of  having  their  minimum  salaries  fixed  by 
the  State." 


SALARY  BASED  ON   SEX-SALARY .  BASED  ON  DRESS 

Alfred  Hall  in  a  letter  to  the  North  Side  Board  of  Trade 
(Bronx),  under  the  date  of  March  i,  1908,  wrote: 

"  Our  women  teachers  are  not  asking  for  charity ;  they 
only  ask  for  the  same  pay  as  the  male  teachers  receive  for 
doing  identically  the  same  work. — Woman  disguised  as 
man  has  done  duty  in  army,  navy  and  various  other  posi- 
tions, and  always  received  the  salary  that  went  with  the 
position,  and  if  one  of  our  girls  in  man's  attire,  applied 
for  a  position  as  teacher  in  our  public  schools  and  passed 
the  necessary  examinations,  she  would  receive  a  man's 
pay.  Woman  should  need  no  disguise  to  get  justice  in 
a  civilized  country. — The  man,  in  cap  and  gown,  sits  on 
the  bench  to  dispense  justice,  and  his  salary  is  not  re- 
duced on  account  of  his  wearing  the  frock.  The  emblem 
of  justice  is  a  female  figure  holding  the  scales,  but  her  sex, 
alas!  is  denied  justice  because  of  that  sex." 

That  woman  has  been  accepted  as  man  because  of  her 
dress,  and  has  been  paid  wages  as  a  man,  is  proven  by 
the  following : 

St.  Louis,  February  16. — "James"  Davis,  who  de- 
ceived as  to  sex  even  Del  Brown,  the  man  who  shared 
"  Jameses  '*  room  at  a  boarding  house  were  both  employed 


134         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

as  men  servants,  is  really  Mabel  Davis,  of  Waverly,  New 
York. 

Miss  Marion  Hamilton  Gray,  who  dressed  as  a  boy  and 
posed  as  a  boy  ever  since  childhood,  according  to  the  story 
she  told  Magistrate  Kernochan  in  Night  Court  last  night, 
is  going  to  don  petticoats. 

The  Magistrate  advised  her  to,  and  she  said  she  would. 

Until  about  two  years  ago  she  had  found  her  masculine 
disguise  perfectly  comfortable  and  her  masculine  life,  in- 
cluding cigarettes  and  pipe,  very  agreeable.  She  crossed 
the  ocean  as  a  cabin  boy  without  detection.  She  had  a 
goodly  income  from  somewhere  in  Great  Britain.  She  was 
accepted  as  the  son  of  Colonel  Hamilton-Gray  of  the 
British  Army,  and  kinsman  of  the  noble  Scottish  family  of 
that  ilk. 

Butte,  Montana,  December  12. — "  The  sudden  death  yes- 
terday, at  Manhattan,  of  *  Sammy '  Jones,  aged  80,  dis- 
closed the  fact  that  instead  of  being  a  man,  as  everyone  in 
the  vicinity  of  Manhattan  for  the  past  eighteen  years  had 
believed  *  him '  to  be,  Jones  was  a  woman." 

St.  Louis,  February  15. — "'William'  Winters,  a  hand- 
some, rosy-cheeked  boy,  was  transformed  to  Miss  Lillian 
Winters  to-day.  '  My  first  job  was  at  Quincy,  111.,  posting 
bills,  and  I  continued  the  work  for  two  years.  I  wanted 
to  live  in  a  larger  city  and  came  to  St.  Louis  in  the  latter 
part  of  1902.  I  have  lived  here  all  this  time  as  a  man 
and  not  one  person  has  suspected  that  I  was  otherwise. 
The  best  job  I  ever  had  was  while  I  drove  a  wagon  for  a 
foundry  and  that  only  paid  $12.  The  impulse  has  always 
been  strong  with  me  to  break  away  from  the  men  I  was 
thrown  in  contact  with,  and  while  I  behaved  as  one  of 
them  I  hated  it  all.    I  wanted  to  be  a  girl.' " 

If  any  of  the  above  had  succeeded  in  getting  a  license 
to  teach  in  the  city  of  New  York  without  having  her  dis- 
guise discovered,  she  would  have  received  a  male  teacher's 
salary — "  a  family  wage." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

WOMEN  TEACHERS  AND  OTHER   WOMEN   CIVIL  SERVICE 
EMPLOYEES 

In  this  connection  the  difference  in  the  requirements  for 
eHgibility  must  be  considered. 

The  character  of  the  work  required,  the  years  of  prep- 
aration involved,  the  necessity  for  constant  study,  the  vital 
importance  of  maintaining  a  good  social  position  in  the 
community  should  all  be  taken  into  consideration  when 
the  matter  of  fixing  a  fair  remuneration  for  a  teacher  is 
at  issue. 

Under  the  Compulsory  Education  Law,  a  girl  may  leave 
school  when  she  has  reached  the  age  of  fourteen  years, 
and  has  satisfied  certain  scholastic  requirements  in  ele- 
mentary subjects — fixed  by  the  Board  of  Superintendents 
as  those  of  the  5B  grade ;  while  in  order  to  be  eligible  to 
teach  in  our  elementary  schools,  a  girl  must  have  graduated 
from  a  four  years'  course  at  a  high  school  and  a  two  years' 
course  at  a  Training  School  for  Teachers,  and  must  also 
have  passed  the  examinationn  given  by  the  Board  of  Ex- 
aminers of  the  Department  of  Education,  of  New  York 
City. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  a  girl  who  desires  to  serve  the 
city  as  a  teacher  in  our  public  schools  must  first  serve  an 
apprenticeship  of  at  least  nine  years:  because  in  addition 
to  fulfilling  the  requirements  which  would  entitle  her  to 
"  working  papers  "  she  must  complete  successfully  the  work 
of  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  years  of  the  Elementary 
School  Course,  of  the  four  years  in  the  High  School 
Course,  and  of  the  two  years  in  the  Course  of  the  Train- 
ing School  for  Teachers,  before  she  is  eligible  even  to  take 
the  examination  for  License  No.  i,  which  she  must  pass 
before  she  is  eligible  for  appointment  as  a  Teacher  in  our 
Elementary  Schools. 

135 


136         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

On  the  other  hand,  the  girl '  who  decides  to  serve  the 
city  as  a  Stenographer,  a  Typewriter,  a  Telephone  Opera- 
tor, a  Tenement  House  Inspector  or  an  Attendance  Of- 
ficer, must  fulfill  no  requiremennts  as  to  scholarship,  and 
must  pass  no  examination  other  than  that  given  by  the 
Civil  Service  Commission  for  the  particular  position 
desired. 


STATISTICS  TAKEN  FROM  CITY  RECORD,  1905-6. 


All  positions  under  Civil 
Service  Commission. 

Number  of  women  about 
5000. 

No  salary  discrimination 
against  women — position  carries 
salary,  without  regard  to  sex  of 
person  holding  it. 

Mayor's  OMce 

Carolyn,  private  sec,  /o6.$i8oo 

Carrie,    clerk,    /02 1200 

Henry,   clerk    1200 

Rose,  sten.  bk.  and  typ...  1200 

Com.  of  License 

Rena,    sec,    6/9/04 $  900 

Marion,   inspec,   9/27/05..  1500 

City  Clerk's  OMce 

Lillian,  sten.  &  typr.,  /04.$I050 

Francis,   messenger    1200 

Anna,  sten.  to  pres.,  /02. .  1200 

Dept.    of  Finance 

Agnes,  clerk,  /oi 900 

Sophie,   clerk,   /04 900 

Mary,  sten.  and  typr.,  /oo.  1350 

Mary,  sten.  and  typr.,  /99.  1050 

Anna,  sten.  and  typr.,  /g^  900 

Lizzie,  cleaner,   /^ 540 

John,   watchman,   /oi 900 

Eliz.,   /02    1200 

Mary,  sten.  and  typr.,  /02  900 


Positions  under  Board  of 
Education. 

Number  of  women  about 
15,000. 

Great  salary  discrimination 
against  women,  in  most  of  the 
positions. 

Teachers  of  grades  from 
kindergarten  to  6B  must  teach 
16  years  and  have  the  $60  bonus 
for  boys,  before  receiving  $1300. 
This  is  the  maximum. 

Schedule   III 
Years 

1    $  600.00 

2  640.00 

3  680.00 

4  720.00 

5  760.00 

6  800.00 

7  840.00 

8  880.00 

9  920.00 

10    960.00 

11    1000.00 

12    1040.00 

13    1080.00 

14    1120.00 

15    1160.00 

16    1200.00 

17    1240.00 

Annual    increase   $40. 
Bonus  for  boys'  classes  $60. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         137 


A  woman  teacher  must  have 
taught  three  years  and  passed 
examination  for  license  for 
promotion  and  be  assigned  to 
class  of  the  7A,  7B,  or  8A 
grade,  before  she  is  placed  in 
the  schedule  which  pays  $1320 
at  the  end  of  15  years,  with  $60 
bonus  for  boys'  classes. 

A  woman  teacher  must  have 
taught  at  least  eleven  years, 
must  have  secured  two  higher 
licenses,  and  be  assigned  to  a 
graduating  class  of  boys,  before 
she  receives  $1500. 


Gladys,  sten.  and  typr.,  /03  900 
Lillie,  sten.  and  typr.,  /gg  1050 
And  nine  others. .  720  and  1200 

Telephone  operators  ap- 
pointed   Dec,    1905 $1300 

Other  telephone  operators 
from   $600  to  $1500 

$  750 

900 

Clerks      1050 

1200 

1500 

Annual  increase  not  less  than 

$150. 

Medical  examiners  who 
have  other  practice  be- 
sides school  inspection.. $1200 

Secretaries  to  heads  of  de- 
partments, $1300,  $1500.  $1800. 

Stenographers  and  typewrit- 
ers, $750,  $goo,  $1050,  $1200, 
$1350,  $1500,  $1600. 

Tenement  house  inspectors, 
$900,  $1050,  $1200,  $1350,  $1500, 
$1800. 

(Unclassified) 
Qeaner,  $450,  $640,  $750. 

Seamstress,  Truant  School, 
$780. 

Attendance  Officers,  men  and 
women,  Department  of  Educa- 
tion, $900,  $1050,  $1200,  $1350, 
$1500. 

When  one  considers  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  the 
work  and  the  requirements  for  eHgibility  between  teachers, 
and  the  artisans  mentioned  below,  the  following  facts  are 
interesting : 


138         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Laborers   receive   from $2.00  to  $3.50  per  day 

Cartmen    3.50  to    4.00  per  day 

Truckmen    4.50  to    5.00  per  day 

Drivers    4.00 

Painters    4.00 

Blacksmiths     4.00 

Carpenters   4.00 

Stablemen    3.00 

Plasterers    5.50 

Tinsmiths   4.00 

Stokers    3.00 

Hod  carriers 3.40 


Figures  below  taken  from  Superintendent  Maxwell's 
Tenth  Annual  Report: 

717,250  Net  Enrollment  of  Pupils  in  all  Schools — year 
1907-8. 

$18,596,874.70  for  salaries  of  teachers. 

Total  sum  per  year  for  teachers'  salaries  per  pupil, 
$25.92. 

Total  sum  per  school  day  for  teachers'  salaries  per  pupil, 
13  cents  if  reckoned  on  197  days ;  7  cents  on  365  days. 

Total  sum  per  school  hour  for  teachers'  salaries  per 
pupil,  2  cents  if  reckoned  on  197  days ;  i  cent  on  365  days. 

Prevailing  rate  of  wages  per  hour  for  carpenter  is  80 
cents. 

Prevailing  rate  of  wages  per  hour  for  plumber  is  80 
cents. 

There  were  197  school  days  in  school  year  of  1907-8. 

A  teacher's  "  hours  "  are  reckoned  here  as  six. 

N.  B. — Of  course,  it  is  well  known  that  a  teacher  has 
to  eat  and  dress  throughout  the  whole  365  days,  and  that 
her  hours  of  labor  do  not  end  at  three. 


OTHER   COMPARISONS 

Statistics  of  the  largest  ten  cities  in  the  U.  S.  show  the 
average  maximum  salary  paid  elementary  school  teachers 
to  be  $1373. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        139 

Street  and  Sewer 
Teachers  Salary  in  First  Year  Laborers 


XJUOLV^lX 

Cincinnatti , . . 

.  400  = 

7.69 

9.87 

New  Orleans. 

•  315  = 

6.06 

(( 

9.62 

Providence ... 

.  400  = 

7.69 

(< 

9.20 

Los  Angeles.. 

.   540  = 

10.40 

« 

12.00 

New  York. . . 

.  600  = 

11-53 

<( 

CITY    PAYS   BETTER   SALARIES   TO   OTHER    WOMEN    WORKERS 

New  York  City  cannot  get  enough  teachers  for  its  public 
schools,  and  one  reason  is  that  it  offers  better  inducements 
to  women  to  seek  other  city  positionns.  It  grants  "  equal 
pay"  to  the  typewriting  copyists,  and  the  salaries  are  as 
good,  often  better,  than  those  paid  to  teachers,  although 
the  requirements  for  eligibility  are  not  so  high  and  the 
examinations  prescribed  are  not  so  difficult  as  those  pre- 
scribed for  teachers. 

The  Civil  Service  Commission  has  just  issued  the  fol- 
lowing call  for  an  examination  for  '*  typewriting  copyists  " : 

'*  Public  notice  is  hereby  given  that  applicationns  will 
be  received  from  Monday,  Dec.  16,  until  4  p.  m.,  Monday, 
Dec.  30,  1907,  for  the  position  of  typewriting  copyists, 
second  grade  (male  or  female).  The  examination  will  be 
held  on  Monday,  Jan.  20,  1908,  at  10  a.  m.  The  subjects 
and  weights  are :  Speed  test,  6 ;  tabulation,  3 ;  arithmetic, 
I.  The  salary  is  $600  to  $1,050  per  annum,  inclusive. 
Candidates  may  also  qualify  as  graphaphone  operators. 
The  minimum  age  is  eighteen  years.  For  further  infor- 
mation apply  to  the  secretary." 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  city  recognizes  the 
principle  of  "  equal  pay "  or  salary  for  position  so  far  as 
typewriting  copyists  are  concerned.  Comparison  with  the 
requirements,  etc.,  for  teachers'  licenses  shows  that  it  is 
much  easier  to  secure  the  $600  salary  of  a  stenograher 
than  it  is  to  get  the  $600  paid  to  woman  teachers. 

First  as  to  requirements.    The  minimum  age  limit  is 


I40         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

eighteen  for  teachers  and  for  typewriting  copyists.  The 
preliminary  education  required,  however,  is  not  the  same. 

A  candidate  for  a  teachers'  license  must  at  least  have 
completed  a  high  school  course  and  two  years  in  the  train- 
ing school,  or  else  have  been  graduated  from  the  Normal 
College. 

The  candidate  for  the  position  of  typewriting  copyist  is 
required  to  have  only  an  elementary  school  education  and 
need  not  necessarily  have  had  experience  or  training  in 
stenography. 

The  examinations  which  the  candidates  for  teachers' 
licenses  must  pass  are  much  more  difficult  than  those  re- 
quired of  the  typewriting  copyists. 

Applications  for  teachers'  licenses  must  pass  written  ex- 
aminations and  practical  tests  in  the  following  subjects: 

History  and  principles  of  education. 

Methods  of  teaching. 

Constructive  work  and  drawing. 

Music. 

Physical  training. 

Sewing. 

In  addition  they  must  pass  an  oral  examination. 

The  subjects  and  weights  in  the  examination  for  type- 
writing  copyists   are: 

Speed  test,  6. 

Tabulation,  3. 

Arithmetic,   i. 

As  regards  the  salary,  both  begin  at  $600,  but  the 
women  teachers  are  granted  an  automatic  annual  increase 
of  $40;  however  typewriting  copyists  do  not  receive  an 
automatic  increase,  their  increase  being  determined  by  the 
department  heads,  but  the  amount  is  usually  $150  each  time. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  typewriting  copyist  will 
reach  the  maximum  at  an  earlier  date  than  the  teacher. 

Under  such  conditions  it  is  not  surprising  that  there 
should  be  a  scarcity  of  teachers. — Globe,  Dec.  20,  1907. 

N.  B. — 'Some  of  the  work  done  by  typewriting  copyists 
is  "  piece  work."  I  know  a  girl  who  could  make  as  high 
as  $200  a  month.     She  often  made  $150. — G.  C.  S. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         141 

Miss  Isabel  Ennis,  secretary  of  the  Interborough  As- 
sociation of  Women  Teachers  contributed  the  following 
interesting  comparisons : 

Telephone  operators  are  paid  $5  a  week  for  six  weeks 
while  learning  the  handling  of  a  switch-board ;  $6  a  week 
when  put  at  work,  and,  if  proficient,  receive  increases  of 
a  dollar  a  week  every  three  months  till  they  become  senior 
operators  at  $10  a  week.  An  attentive  girl  can  become 
a  supervisor  within  two  years  at  $12  a  week.  Assistant 
chief  operators  get  $15  a  week;  chief  operators,  $25  a 
week. 

Girls  have  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  of  nine  years  with- 
out pay  to  earn  $11.47  ^  week  as  teachers. 

This  states  the  case  of  the  public  school  teacher  as  com- 
pared with  the  telephone  operator  in  the  matter  of  salaries, 
and  accounts  in  some  degree  for  the  shortage  of  704  teach- 
ers in  the  public  schools  of  this  city,  and  for  the  fact  that 
in  October,  1907  there  were  1498  classes  without  teachers 
at  different  times. 

But  besides  these  facts,  there  is  the  further  circum- 
stance that  telephone  operators  trained  by  the  company  and 
paid  during  their  schooling  are  in  demand  for  private 
switchboards  at  wages  varying  from  $10  to  $15  and  even 
$20  a  week. 

These  facts  bear  upon  the  disclosures  made  by  The 
Evening  Mail,  on  Saturday,  when  it  was  shown  that  there 
was  a  serious  famine  in  school  teachers  and  that  one  of  the 
causes  for  this  shortage  of  supply  was  that  as  stenograph- 
ers, after  one  year's  training,  girls  could  earn  $780  a  year, 
while  it  took  nine  years'  schooling  to  fit  a  young  woman 
for  a  $600  a  year  position  in  the  public  schools. 

The  exposure  of  the  way  the  supply  of  school  teachers  is 
diminished  by  the  rewards  offered  by  other  lines  of  busi- 
ness has  aroused  the  liveliest  interest  among  the  friends 
of  the  public  schools  and  among  the  teachers  themselves. 

One  of  the  teachers,  who  has  been  long  enough  in  the 
service  to  be  well  on  toward  the  $1000  mark,  through  $40 
a  year  additions  to  her  stipend,  said: 


142         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"  The  dollars  in  the  great  big  $600  per  year  paid  by  the 
city  have  lost  their  cartwheel  size  to  teachers  from  out  of 
town,  for  they  know  by  experience  they  cannot  meet  their 
expenses  with  any  such  salary.  Again,  advancement  is 
slow,  and  the  munificent  $1240  after  seventeen  years'  ex- 
perience no  longer  attracts  as  it  did,  when  $1240  had  a 
$1600  purchasing  value. 

"  Apropos  of  your  comparisons  of  stenographers  and 
teachers,  let  me  give  you  the  story  of  two  graduates  of 
mine.  Miss  A.  and  Miss  B.,  both  fourteen  years  old.     Miss 

A.  had  secured  a  position  in  the  telephone  service.     Miss 

B.  was  to  be  a  teacher  because  they  '  got  such  nice  wages.' 
I  calculated  on  the  blackboard  for  them  that  Miss  A.  at  $6 
per  week  for  seven  years  of  fifty-two  weeks  each,  would 
earn  $2184.  Miss  B.  spends  four  years  at  high  school, 
two  years  at  training  school,  possibly  a  year  to  '  get 
located.'  and  as  yet  has  not  earned  a  dollar.  Miss  B,  will 
teach  several  years  before  she  can  be  '  even '  with  Miss  A. 

"  Compare  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  telephone  operator, 
who  is  paid  while  she  is  learning,  and  that  necessary  for 
the  teacher,  and  then  let  any  one  in  the  system  dodge  the 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  famine  in  teachers  is 
connected  with  the  fact  that  '  teachers  get  such  nice  wages.' 

"  Nor  is  this  all.  Last  spring  I  collected  some  statistics, 
among  which  was  the  salary  paid  to  twenty  telephone 
operators,  all  former  pupils  of  mine.  The  youngest  was 
sixteen,  the  oldest  twenty.     I   found: 

Four  received,  per  week  $  8 

Four  received,  per  week 10 

Six  received,  per  week 12 

Four  received,  per  week  14 

Two  received,  per  week 20 

"  The  average  was  $12  per  week,  50  cents  per  week 
more  than  is  paid  a  teacher.  I  found  the  averarge  wages 
among  those  who  became  stenographers  much  higher." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

COST 

In  considering  the  "  Cost "  of  "  Equal  Pay,"  we  are 
dealing  with  the  greatest  obstacle  that  has  stood  in  our 
way.     Simmered   down,   the   facts   are: 

(a)  Some  male  teachers  have  opposed  us  because  it 
would  cost  so  much  to  give  the  women  just  salaries  that 
there  would  be  less  chance  of  the  men  getting  a  further 
raise  in  their  salaries. 

(b)  Some  male  taxpayers  have  opposed  us  because 
they  believed  it  would  raise  their  taxes. 

(c)  The  Board  of  Education  has  opposed  us  we  do 
not  know  why. 

(d)  The  Mayor  opposed  us  (i)  because  his  Board 
of  Education  opposed  us;  (2)  because  he  would  not 
listen  to  our  side;  (3)  because  the  money  was  wanted 
for  something  else. 

It  has  been  noted  with  gratification  by  women  teachers 
that  not  one  woman  taxpayer  has  ever  opposed  them  on 
the  ground  of  increased  taxes.  It  has  likewise  been  noted 
with  amusement  tinged  with  scorn  that  the  male  taxpayers 
who  have  opposed  us  as  such,  have  evidently  assumed: 
(i)   that  all  taxpayers^  are  men;   (2)   that  the  women 

1  The  public  press  of  January  10  and  11,  1910,  in  articles  com- 
menting on  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Taxes  and  Assessments 
for  the  year,  show  that  a  woman  heads  the  personal  tax  list,  and 
one  tax  list  printed,  showed  135  men  assessed  on  $30495,000  and 
146  women  assessed  on  $31,365,000. 

143 


144         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

teachers  themselves  are,  of  course,  not  taxpayers;  (3)  that 
the   women   teachers    are   their   beneficiaries. 

In  the  various  estimates  that  have  been  published,  the 
most  glaring  and  inconsistent  misrepresentations  have  been 
made. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  not  been  possible  to  give  a 
definite  and  exact  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  "  White 
Bill " — the  bill  passed  in  1907  and  vetoed  by  Mayor  Mc- 
Clellan  and  Governor  Hughes — because  the  cost  would 
absolutely  depend  on  the  schedules  made  by  the  Board  of 
Education.  The  bill  made  mandatory,  (a)  the  raising  of 
the  minimum  salary  from  $600  to  $720;  (&)  an  annual 
increment  of  at  least  $105;  (c)  equal  salaries  for  men 
and  women  occupying  the  same  position ;  and  (d)  no 
salary  reduction.  It  is  true  that  it  also  made  mandatory 
the  increase  of  the  three  mill  appropriation  (Sec.  1064, 
Charter)  to  four  mills ;  but  to  say  that  this  meant  an  arbi- 
trary increase  of  the  proceeds  of  one  mill,  is  palpably 
false  because  there  has  not  been  a  year  since  the  original 
four  mill  appropriation  was  reduced  to  three  that  the  Board 
of  Estimate  has  not  been  obliged  to  allow  more  than  the 
amount  produced  by  the  three  mill  provision,  this  extra 
allowance  sometimes  exceeding  a  million  dollars. 

UNRELIABILITY   OF   ESTIMATES 

In  proof  of  the  unreliability  of  the  estimates,  note  the 
following : 

(a)  Auditor  Cook  of  the  Board  of  Education,  in  a  com- 
munication addressed  to  Hon,  Abraham  Stern,  April  26, 
1907,  says:  "In  accordance  imth  your  instructions  I  have 
prepared  and  present  herewith  a  statement  of  the  approxi- 
mate cost  of  equalizing  salaries  of  teachers  in  the  public 
schools,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  fiscal  year  1908.  In  pre- 
paring this  statement,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  actual  or 
tentative  schedules  of  salaries  formulated  by  the  Board  of 
Education  under  authority  of  the  "  White  "  bill,  it  becomes 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         145 

necessary  to  assume  certain  conditions  in  anticipation,  and 
such  conditions,  as  stated  and  explained  by  you  at  a  recent 
interview,  are  understood  to  be  as  follows  " : 

(b)  Mayor  McClellan  in  his  veto  message  on  the 
"White  Bill,"  dated  May  10,  1907,  said:  "As  to  the 
question  of  the  additional  expense  which  will  be  forced 
upon  the  City  by  this  measure,  there  is  considerable  dif- 
ferance  of  opinion." 

(c)  Comptroller  Metz  in  letter  to  me  dated  March  25, 
1908  said :  "  I  beg  to  acknowledge  your  communication 
of  the  I2th  instant  requesting  me  to  answer  certain  ques- 
tions, as  indicated  below,  concerning  the  several  so-called 
women  teachers'  '  equal  pay  bills,'  which  have  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Legislature  during  the  present  and  the  pre- 
ceding sessions,  and  to  reply  as  follows: 

"  *  I.  Has  the  Department  of  Finance  made  a  formal 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  money  necessary  to  put  into 
effect  the  Conklin  Equal  Pay  Bill  of  1908?' 

"It  has  not. 

"  *  2.  Has  the  Department  of  Finance  made  a  formal 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  money  that  would  be  required 
to  put  into  effect  the  Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill 
reported  by  the  Senate  Cities  Committee  on  March  3, 
1908?' 

"It  has  not.  But  on  the  -figures  submitted  by  Auditor 
Cook  on  April  26,  1907,  representatives  of  this  department 
have  estimated  the  minimum  cost  thereof  to  be  not  less 
than  the  amount  stated  therein  $9,109,354,  and  probably  a 
substantial  amount  greater  than  that  sum. 

" '  3.  Has  the  Department  of  Finance  asked  for  a  legal 
opinion  on,  or  a  legal  interpretation  of,  any  of  the  so-called 
Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bills?' 

"  It  has  not.  This  department  has  been  requested,  at 
different  times,  to  furnish  an  estimate  of  the  amount  of 
money  that  would  be  required  to  establish  the  equal  pay 
salary  schedule  proposed  by  one  or  another  of  said  bills 


146         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

but  so  far  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  make  such  an  esti- 
mate, and  for  the  reason  that,  in  my  opinion,  no  such  esti- 
mate can  be  made  with  any  approach  to  exactness  because 
the  cost  of  any  one  of  the  proposed  equal  pay  bills  zvould 
depend  largely  upon  the  salary  schedules  which  the  Board 
of  Education  might  see  fit  to  establish  in  compliance  with 
the  provisions  thereof." 

(d)  Mayor  McClellan's  Cc«nmission^Messrs.  Schwab, 
Keep  and  Clark  reported :  "  Your  commission  find  it  im- 
possible to  make  any  computation  of  the  probable  addi- 
tional cost  to  the  city,  which  would  follow  the  adoption  of 
the  provisions  of  the  *  White  Bill.' " 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Auditor  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation did  not  address  his  communication  to  the  Board  of 
Education  but  to  Mr.  Abraham  Stern;  and  not  to  Mr. 
Stern  as  chairman  of  a  committee  of  said  board,  or  even 
as  a  member  of  said  board,  but  simply  "  Mr.  Stern."  Yet, 
these  are  the  estimates,  confessedly  based  on  assumption, 
that  have  been  presented  as  the  estimates  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  and  have  been  used  by  the  Mayor,  the  Comp- 
troller, various  other  officials  and  individuals  and  associa- 
tions in  opposing  "  Equal  Pay "  on  account  of  its  cost. 

On  March  23,  1908,  I  sent  the  following  to  Mr.  Cook : 

Mr.  Henry  R.  Cook, 

Auditor,  Board  of  Education. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Cook: 

Notwithstanding  your  reply  to  a  recent  communication, 
I  again  write  you,  and  I  hope  that  you  will  give  me  direct 
answers  to  the  following  questions: 

1.  In  making  your  estimate  as  to  the  cost  of  the  "  White 
Bill "  last  year,  did  you  have  any  legal  opinion  to  guide 
you  in  interpreting  such  Bill? 

2.  Is  it  not  true  that  in  making  said  estimate,  with  its 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         147 

total  of  $9,100,000  and  upwards,  you  worked  on  an  imagi- 
nary set  of  schedules,  which  would  pay  all  the  teachers  in 
the  system  as  if  they  were  male  teachers  under  the  ex- 
isting schedules? 

3.  Acknowledging  that  the  two  clauses  "  The  Board  of 
Education  shall  establish  uniform  schedules "  and  "  No 
salary  of  any  member  of  the  supervising  or  teaching  force 
shall  be  reduced,"  do  not  compel  the  Board  of  Education 
to  make  schedules  which  shall  include  all  the  individual 
salaries,  is  it  not  possible  for  the  Board  of  Education  to 
comply  with  all  the  requirements  of  the  "  White  Bill " 
without  going  beyond  the  proceeds  of  the  four-mill  tax? 

4.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  Davis  Law  protects  the  salary 
of  a  male  teacher  in  grades  below  those  of  the  seventh  and 
eighth  years  in  the  Elementary  Schools  only  in  an  initial 
salary  of  $900  and  an  annual  increment  of  $105? 

5.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  Board  of  Education  is  free  to- 
day to  divide  Schedule  VI.  and  make  a  new  schedule  for 
male  teachers  in  the  grades  of  the  first  six  years,  with  a 
maximum  to  be  reached  at  the  end  of  the  fifth,  sixth,  sev- 
enth, eighth  or  ninth  year,  as  it  might  choose? 

I  beg  for  an  early  reply  to  this  communication  and  for 
direct  answers  to  these  questions,  because  the  estimate 
which  you  made  of  the  "  White  Bill  "  of  last  year  is  being 
constantly  used  against  us  by  the  opponents  of  our  bill, 
and  we  believe  that  you  do  not  wish  to  be  responsible  for 
supplying  said  opponents  with  this  false  charge. 
Yours  very  truly, 
Grace  C.  Strachan, 

President  Interborough  Association 
of  Women  Teachers. 

I  received  the  following  in  reply : 

March  30,  1908. 
Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

I  beg  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  communication  of 
March  23,  asking  me  to  answer  specifically  five  questions 


148         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

which  you  propound  in  relation  to  teachers'  salary  legis- 
lation. 

On  February  17,  1908,  in  response  to  your  letter  of  Feb- 
ruary 3  bearing  on  this  same  subject,  I  advised  you  that  it 
had  been  suggested  to  this  Bureau  that  it  is  inadvisable 
to  issue  any  official  statements,  in  regard  to  the  teachers' 
salary  bill  now  before  the  Legislature,  except  on  request 
of  the  Board  of  Education  or  its  committees.  I  now  beg  to 
advise  you  that  it  has  been  conveyed  to  me  that  a  continu- 
ation of  such  attitude  on  the  part  of  this  Bureau  is  expected. 
Yours  very  truly, 

Henry  R.  M.  Cook, 
Auditor  of  the  Board  of  Education. 

It  is  thus  easily  seen  that  the  responsibility  of  the  estimate 
of  the  cost  of  Equal  Pay  rests  on  Mr.  Abraham  Stern  and 
Auditor  Cook.  Let  us  read  the  following  in  this  connec- 
tion: 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  Friday,  May  4,  1900,  con- 
tained an  article  in  which  it  was  stated  that  Auditor  Cook 
estimated  that  "  under  the  Davis  Law,  principal's  salaries 
would  in  fifteen  years  become  $8,500  for  men,  and  $6,700 
for  women."  Now,  we  all  know  the  Davis  Law  has  been 
in  effect  ten  years  and  no  man  principal  is  receiving  over 
$3500,  or  woman,  over  $2500. 

The  Eagle  of  March  18,  1910.  "  The  vacillating  attitude 
of  the  Board  of  Education  in  deciding  which  parts  of  the 
city  require  the  erection  of  new  school  buildings  resulted 
in  the  laying  over  of  a  resolution  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Board  of  Estimate  to-day,  authorizing  the  issue  of  corpo- 
rate stock  in  the  sum  of  $1,845,000  for  new  buildings.  Con-  , 
troller  Pendergast  had  submitted  a  report  recommending 
the  appropriation  but  at  his  own  request  the  board  deferred 
action.  President  Winthrop  could  not  explain  the  budget, 
and  Henry  Cook,  the  auditor  of  the  board,  was  mystified 
just  as  much." 

Mr.  Stern  said  in  opposing  the  Davis  Law.  it  would  cost 
"$26,000,000,"  but  Mr.  Maxwell's  loth  Annual  Report 
contains  the  following  table: 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         149 

Payments  From   General  School  Fund  For  Salaries  Of 
Teachers  In  Elementary  High  and  Training 
Schools 
Year. 

1898-99   $  8,059,958.89 

1899-1900  10,583,133.64 

1900-1901   12,587,011.56 

1901-02   13,395,882.38 

1902-03   14,350,802.94 

1903-04   14,885,891.42 

1904-05   15,574,005.00 

1905-06  16,870.891.47 

1906-07  17,582,067.32 

1907-08  18,596,87470 

The  Davis  Bill  became  law  July  3,  1900.  It  appears  that 
the  salary  increase  for  1901  was  $2,003,877.92. 

Though  Borough  President  Coler  and  Comptroller  Metz 
rarely  agreed  while  members  of  the  same  Board  of  Esti- 
mate and  Apportionment,  there  is  striking  agreement  in  the 
attitude  of  Mr.  Coler  on  the  Davis  Bill  in  1900,  and  the 
attitude  of  Mr.  Metz  on  the  White  Bill,  in  1907,  as  the 
following  quotations  prove: 

Comptroller  Cole  on  Davis  Bill : 

"  It  imposes  an  enormous  and  unnecessary  burden  on 
taxpayers ; " 

"  Its  provisions  and  the  manner  in  which  it  became  a 
law  are  bound  eventually  to  demoralize  the  school  system ; " 
"  It  was  opposed  by  Board  of  Education ; " 
"  It  was  opposed  by  many  newspapers ; " 
"  It  was  vetoed  by  Mayor  Van  Wyck ;  " 
"  It  was  forced  on  city  by  Republican  legislation ; " 
"  It  was  signed  by  a  Republican  governor ; " 
"  Belief  has  become  common  that  the  organized  school- 
teaichers  of  this  city  are  a  political  force  which  it  is  danger- 
ous to  oppose  no  matter  how  extravagant  their  demands 
may  be ; " 


150         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"The  bill  is  a  raid  on  the  city  treasury;  it  takes  from 
the  control  of  the  Department  of  Finance  $20,000,000 
which  is  hereafter  to  be  disbursed  by  irresponsible  clerks." 

"It  is  inevitable  that  not  a  few  teachers  will  be  found 
drawing  higher  salaries  than  Cabinet  oMcers,  college  presi- 
dents or  the  Governor  of  New  York." 

Comptroller  Metz  on  White  Bill : 

"  I  am  and  have  been  of  the  opinion  at  all  times  that 
the  proposition  to  equalize  salaries  in  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion would  cost  the  city  about  $13,000,000." 

This  is  nearly  $4,000,000  more  than  even  Auditor  Cook's 
extravagant  estimate. 

Mr.  Coler  and  Mr,  Metz  have  also  agreed  in  opposing 
the  "Equal  Pay"  bills. 

STUDY  OF  SCHEDULES 

One  of  the  first  questions  that  was  asked  us  when  we 
began  our  agitation  was,  "  How  much  will  it  cost?"  And 
so  our  Executive  Committee,  carefully  selected  to  repre- 
sent every  grade  and  special  subject,  worked  many  weeks 
in  the  preparation  of  "  Equal  Pay  "  schedules.  We  were 
unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the  minimum  salaries  estab- 
lished for  men  teachers  by  the  Davis  Law  should  be  pre- 
served. So  the  $900  salary,  the  minimum  fixed  by  the 
Davis  Law  for  a  "  male  teacher "  we  made  the  minimum 
salary  for  a  teacher  of  boys'  or  mixed  class.  The  commit- 
tee was  unanimous  also  in  the  opinion  that  the  present 
bonus  of  $60  for  teachers  of  boys  was  insufficient  and  did 
not  attract  the  necessary  supply  of  women  teachers,  so  we 
fixed  $120  as  the  least,  and  $180  as  the  greatest  difference 
between  the  salaries  of  a  teacher  of  a  girls'  class  and  that 
of  a  teacher  of  a  boys'  class  of  corresponding  grade.  The 
minimum  annual  increment  for  a  male  teacher  fixed  by  the 
Davis  Law  we  made  the  annual  increment  for  all  classes. 
So  far  all  had  gone  smoothly.  But  at  this  point  we  found 
ourselves  confronted  by  a  discrimination  other  than  salary, 
and  in  trying  to  explain  this  discrimination  is  that  we  have 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         151 

found  the  greatest  difficulty  in  making  those  unacquainted 
with  the  technical  terms  and  intimate  details  of  our  system 
and  of  the  Davis  Law  understand.* 

The  Davis  Bill  became  law  May  3,  1900.  The  commit- 
tee of  the  Board  of  Education  which  prepared  the  schedules 
under  the  new  law  was  headed  by  Abraham  Stern.  This 
committee  prepared  schedules  in  strict  conformity  with 
the  provisions  of  the  Davis  Bill,  in  every  instance  but  one. 
which  exception  favored  the  men,  it  is  embodied  in  Sched- 
ule VI,  Section  65,  of  the  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, The  way  in  which  this  has  effected  women  teachers 
will  be  easily  understood  from  a  consideration  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Davis  Bill,  which  provided  that: 

(a)  "No  kindergarten  or  female  teacher  of  the  grades 
of  the  first  six  years  of  the  elementary  schools  shall  receive 
less  than  $600  a  year ;  " 

(b)  "  No  male  teacher  shall  receive  less  than  $900  a 
year ; " 

(c)  The  annual  increment  of  female  teachers  as  de- 
scribed in  (a)  shall  be  not  less  than  $40; 

(d)  The  annual  increment  of  a  male  teacher  shall  be 
not  less  than  $105  ; 

(e)  No  female  teacher  as  described  in  (a)  shall  after 
sixteen  years  of  service  receive  less  than  $1240; 

*  Two  months  later,  I  was  elected  Associate  Superintendent  by 
the  Brooklyn  Board  of  Education.  As  principal,  I  had  received  the 
maximum  salary  of  $2500.  The  committee  appointed  to  make 
schedules  unler  the  new  law,  Mr.  Abraham  Stern,  chairman,  rec- 
ommended a  salary  of  $2500  for  a  "  female  "  district  superintendent, 
and  $5000  for  a  "  male "  district  superintendent.  Miss  Whitney 
had  been  elected  a  superintendent  in  Brooklyn,  a  year  before,  and 
was  receiving  the  same  salary  as  the  men.  It  was  the  manifest 
purpose  of  the  committee  to  deter  women  from  seeking  the  posi- 
tion of  superintendent  by  making  the  salary  less  in  reality  than  that 
of  a  principal.  I  gave  up  my  vacation  and  brought  to  bear  all  the 
social,  political  and  religious  influence  I  could  to  have  the  salary 
fixed  for  district  superintendents  without  the  qualifying  words 
"  male "  and  "  female."  The  committee's  final  report  included  a 
uniform  salary  of  $5000,  the  amount  then  being  paid  to  the  district 
superintendents — all  men — in  Manhattan, 


152         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

(f)  No  female  teacher  of  the  grades  of  the  last  two 
years  of  the  elementary  schools  shall  after  fifteen  years  of 
service  receive  less  than  $1320; 

(g)  No  male  teacher  of  the  grades  of  the  last  two 
years  of  the  elementary  schools  shall  after  twelve  years 
of  service  receive  less  than  $2160; 

(h)  No  female  teacher  of  a  graduating  class  shall  after 
ten  years  of  servicel  ess  than  $1440 ; 

(i)  No  male  teacher  of  a  graduating  class  shall  after 
ten  years  of  service  receive  less  than  $2,400. 

The  compliance  with  these  provisions  produced  the  pres- 
ent schedules  of  the  Board  of  Education  as  tabulated  below : 


Schedule   iii.    Women. 

Kindergartens    and    Teachers 
of  Grades  1A-6B. 
Mandatory  minimum   .  .$  600.00 

Mandatory  increment  . .  40.00 
Year 

1    600.00 

2    640.00 

3    680.00 

4    720.00 

5    760.00 

6    800.00 

7    840.00 

8    880.00 

9    920.00 

10    960.00 

11    1000.00 

12    1040.00 

13 1080.00 

14 1120.00 

15    1160.00 

16    1200.00 

17    1240.00 

Present  schedule  IV.     Grades 
7A— 8A. 
i6th  year $1320.00 

Present    schedule    V.      Grade 
SB. 
lith  year   $1440.00 


Schedule  VI.     Men. 
Mandatory  minimum   .  .$  900.00 
Mandatory    increment. .     105.00 
Year 

1    90000 

2    1005.00 


(Number  of  increments  left 
to  the  discretion  of  the  Board 
of   Education.) 


Present  schedule  VI.     Grades 
7A— 8A. 

13th  year    $2160.00 

Present  schedule  VII.    Grade 
8B. 
nth  year    $2400.00 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         153 

The  schedules  also  provided  that  the  female  teacher  of 
a  boys'  class  or  of  a  mixed  class  having  at  least  forty  per 
cent,  of  the  register,  boys,  shall  receive  a  bonus  of  $60  a 
year.  The  male  teacher  in  charge  of  a  girls'  class  would 
receive  as  much  as  for  a  boys'  class,  but  it  is  the  practice 
not  to  place  men  over  girls'  classes  although  there  is  no 
law  or  regulation  against  such  procedure,  and  there  has 
been  a  male  teacher  of  an  8B  girls'  class. 

The  above  figures  show  the  cause  of  the  great  disparity 
in  the  estimates  of  the  cost  of  equal  pay.  There  are  three 
definite  schedules  fixed  for  female  teachers ;  there  are  not 
three  definite  schedules  fixed  for  male  teachers.  The  Davis 
Lazv  failed  to  fix  a  minimum-maximum  salary  for  male 
teachers  in  grades  of  the  first  six  years  of  the  course, — in 
other  words,  a  minimum-maximum  to  correspond  to  the 
$1240  of  Schedule  III. 

Now  I  believe  that  Mr.  Stern's  Committee  either  did  not 
notice  this  lack  or  they  failed  to  grasp  its  full  significance. 
They  realized  that  under  the  law  there  was  for  male 
teachers  a  minimum  salary  of  $900 ;  a  minimum  increment 
of  $105;  a  minimum  after  twelve  years  of  $2160;  but  they 
appear  not  to  have  realized  that  the  last  mentioned  salary 
was  mandatory  only  in  the  last  two  years  of  the  course, 
namely,  in  7A,  7B,  8A,  and  that  they  were  at  liberty  in 
grades  of  the  first  six  years  (1A-6B)  to  cease  adding  the 
increment  of  $105  wherever  they  chose  to  do  so.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  making  Schedule  VI  correspond  to  Schedule 
III  for  women,  and  fixing  a  maximum  in  the  grades  of  the 
first  six  years,  less  than  the  $2160  fixed  for  male  teachers 
of  the  grades  of  the  last  two  years — just  as  the  $1240  for 
women  in  the  lower  grades  is  less  than  the  $1320  fixed  for 
female  teachers  of  the  grades  of  the  last  two  years — Mr. 
Stem's  Committee  made  Schedule  VI  cover  all  male 
teachers  of  grades  below  the  graduating  class.  This  is  why 
when  we  asked  the  Legislature  at  Albany  to  have  salaries 
fixed  for  "  teachers  of  boys'  classes "  and  "  teachers  of 
girls'  classes,"  instead  of  for  "  male  teachers  "  and  "  female 
teachers,"  our  opponents  were  able  to  state  that  there  was 
a  male  teacher  of  a  2B  grade — a  grade  of  the  last  half  of 


154         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  second  year  of  the  course,  where  the  normal  child  is 
seven  and  a  half  years  old — who  was  receiving  $2160  a 
year.  Mr.  Stern  held  that  to  comply  with  our  request 
would  cost  the  city  of  New  York  over  nine  million  dollars 
because  every  female  teacher  in  the  kindergarten  and 
grades  lA  to  6B  inclusive,  would  after  twelve  years  of 
service  have  to  be  given  $2160  a  year.  This  statement 
he  must  have  known  to  be  false  for  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion is  at  liberty  under  the  Davis  Law  to  fix  any  maximum 
it  pleases  for  male  teachers  of  the  grades  of  the  first  six 
years,  limited  only  by  the  Davis  Law  restrictions  that  the 
minimum  be  not  less  than  $900  and  the  annual  increments 
not  less  than  $105. 

Our  schedules  known  as  the  "  McCarren  Schedues  "  pro- 
vided that  the  increment  be  added  seven  times,  the  follow- 
ing schedule  resulting  therefrom: 

Teachers  of  Boys'  or  Mixed  Classes 

(Grades  1A-6B) 
Year. 

1st.  (Minimum  as  fixed  by  the  Davis  Law)  $  900 
2nd.    (Increment  of  $105  as  fixed  by  the  Davis  Law)     1005 

3rd.  mo 

4th.  12 I 5 

5th.                                                       •  1320 

6th.  1425 

7th.  1530 

8th.  1635 

INTERBOROUGH  ESTIMATES  COMPARED  WITH  BOARD 
ESTIMATES 

That  our  estimates  were  correctly  made  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  except  for  the  item  involved  in  the  foregoing 
explanation,  our  figures  correspond  almost  exactly  with 
those  of  Auditor  Cook. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         155 


Estimate  of  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers 

(a)  10,012  Women  Teachers  of  Kindergarten 

and  grades  of  first  six  years $4,116,915 

(b)  1,044  Teachers  of  7A,  7B,  and  8A 742,327 

(c)  329  Teachers  of  8B  259,180 

(d)  192  Principals 191,500 

(^)  345  Assistants  to  Principals 298,000 

(f)  571  High  and  Training  School  Teachers  219,130 

12,493  Total   $5,827,052 

Estimate  of  Auditor  Cook 

(a)  10,077  Women  Teachers  of  Kindergarten 

and  grades  of  first  six  years $5,869,550 

(b)  1,049  Teachers  of  7A,  7B,  and  8A 707,970 

(c)  323  Teachers  8B 251,840 

(d)  191  Principals    191,000 

(e)  345  Assistants  to  Principals 276,000 

(f)  564  High  and  Training  School  Teachers  230,580 

12,549  Total $7,526,940 

Sub.  10,077  Teachers  below  7A $5,869,550 

2,472  Teachers    and    supervising    officials 

above  6B $1,657,390 

In  estimating  item  (a)  Auditor  Cook  used  a  maximum 
of  $2160  for  all  teachers,  including  kindergarten  teachers, 
below  8B.  We  used  $1635  for  teachers  below  7A.  Our 
estimates  for  the  remaining  items  give  an  average  of 
$689.29  for  each  of  the  2,481  teachers  and  supervising 
officials  above  the  6B ;  Auditor  Cook's  give  an  average  of 
$670.46.  Thus  it  is  seen  that  our  estimate  on  these  items 
is  exorbitant  according  to  the  method  of  computation  fol- 
lowed by  the  Board  of  Education  to  the  extent  of  $18.83 


156         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

per  teacher,  or  $235,243.19  for  the  12,493  teachers  inckided 
in  the  estimate. 


To  the  above  total  of 

$7,526,940  the  auditor's  estimate  added: 
(g)        188,530  For  women  appointed  since  June  i,    1906. 
(h)        810,084  For  cost  of  mixed  and  boys'  classes, 
(i)         120,000  For  cost  of  female  substitutes, 
(j)         79.000  For  cost  of  filling  vacancies, 
(k)        481,000  For  cost  of  diflference  in  increment. 
(1)         248,000  For  cost  of  enlargement  of  system. 


$9,483,454  Total.  ^ 
(m)       374,100  Approximate  saving  on  outgoing  system. 


$9,109,354  Estimate  which  was  quoted  by  the  Mayor 
and  others  as  the  "  cost  of  the  bill." 

It  is  evident  that  items  (g)  to  (1)  inclusive  being  also 
computed  on  the  $2160  basis  are  all  exorbitant,  and  greater 
than  for  the  "  White  Bill "  or  any  other  plan  of  "  Equal 
Pay." 

It  appears  that  the  auditor  did  not  consider  the  above 
estimate  correct  at  all  times,  for  the  Evening  World  of 
October  5,  1908,  in  an  article  on  the  "  Budget  Hearing  "  of 
the  Board  of  Education  said :  "  Mr.  Metz  then  wanted  to 
know  how  the  salary  increases  suggested  compared  with 
the  increases  proposed  in  the  teacher's  bill  last  year.  With 
Auditor  Cook's  help  Mr.  Winthrop  placed  the  figures  at 
$6,500,000  for  the  bill  and  $3,500,000  for  the  budget  esti- 
mate." 

$9,000,000  INCREASE   NEGLECT  OF  PRIMARY  TEACHER 

There  have  been  many  inconsistent  arguments  made  by 
our  opponents,  and  many  inconsistent  platforms  borrowed 
for  special  occasions,  but  no  inconsistency  has  been  so  flag- 
rant in  its  baldness  or  so  contemptible  in  its  use  as  that 
involved  in  this  "  $2160  estimate." 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         157 

The  Board  of  Education,  the  Association  of  Male  Prin- 
cipals and  Teachers,  Mayor  McClellan,  Comptroller  Metz, 
and  the  pitifully  small  number  of  citizens'  associations  that 
opposed  us,  all  used  the  "  Cost " — $9,000,000  and  upwards 
(even  to  $13,000,000  by  Mr.  Metz)  as  one  reason  for  their 
opposition,  and  in  the  next  breath  announced  as  another 
reason — that  it,  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  bill,  did  not  provide  an 
increase  for  the  "primary  teachers."  Thus  to  make  one 
false  argument,  they  boosted  the  estimate  to  $9,000,000 
by  figuring  on  paying  all  teachers  from  kindergarten,  to 
8A  inclusive,  under  the  $2160  schedule;  and  then  for  an- 
other false  argument  they  claimed  that  the  "  primary 
teachers  "  were  neglected  by  the  Interborough. 

In  this  connection  the  following  item  is  pertinent:  "De- 
cember 17,  1909.  The  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  has 
asked  the  press  to  state  that  neither  it  nor  its  representatives 
have  ever  declared  that  an  equal  pay  schedule  would  cost 
$11,000,000  or  of  necessity  disregard  the  need  of  14,000 
teachers ;  no  scheme  which  entirely  ignored  14,000  teachers 
could  cost  $11,000,000.  Thus  far  it  has  contained  itself 
to  seeking  facts. 

The  primary  teachers  who  attended  our  meetings  and 
read  our  literature  knew  that  almost  the  whole  struggle  of 
the  Interborough  was  in  their  interests.  If  the  "  Equal 
Pay"  fight  concerned  only  the  2500  women  who  occupied 
the  positions  above  the  6B  grade,  it  would  have  been  won 
easily.  The  cost  would  have  been  less  than  $2,000,000.  In- 
deed, City  Superintendent  Maxwell  in  his  report  for  the 
year  ending  July  31,  1907,  recommended  "  Equal  Pay"  for 
women  principals. 

But  most  of  the  primary  teeachers  knew  that  the  leaders 
of  the  Interborough  themselves  opposed  the  "  White  Bill " 
until  they  succeeded  in  having  incorporated  therein  the 
amendments:  (i)  "and  that  the  difference  between  the 
salary  of  a  teacher  of  a  boys'  class  of  corresponding  grade 
shall  not  be  more  than  $180:"  and  (2)  "at  least  ninety- 
three  percentum  of  the  amount  appropriated  for  the  general 
school  fund  shall  be  set  aside  for  the  payment  of  the  sal- 
aries of  the  members  of  the  supervising  and  teaching  staff 


1 58         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

of  the  regular  public  day  schools  of  the  City  of  New  York." 
The  leaders  of  the  women  teachers  knew  that  without  the 
first  amendment  above,  the  board  could  make  the  "  Equal 
Pay "  clause  almost  ineffective  and  wholly  ridiculous  by 
making  the  difference  between  the  salaries  for  boys'  classes 
and  girls'  classes  as  great  as  or  even  greater  than  the  pres- 
ent difference  between  the  salaries  for  male  teachers  and 
for  female  teachers.  They  insisted  on  the  second  amend- 
ment to  prevent  the  dissipation  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
additional  fourth  mill  in  evening,  summer,  and  lecture  activ- 
ities and  increasing  salaries  of  workers  therein,  other  offi- 
cials and  attendance  officers.  They  knew  that  equalization 
would  up  to  the  Davis  Law  Minimums  require  less  than 
thirty  per  cent,  of  such  proceeds,  thus  leaving  upwards 
of  seventy  per  cent,  of  same  for  teachers  below  the  7A 
grade. 

The  following  resolution  adopted  by  The  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
indicates  the  attitude  of  the  great  majo^^ity  of  the  "  Pri- 
mary tachers": 

"At  a  meeting  held  at  City  College,  March  20,  1908: 
Whereas,  We  know  that  Mr.  Melvin  R.  Hix,  Mr.  Bernard 
Cronson,  Mr.  Edward  S.  Shumway,  and  other  male 
teachers  and  principals  who  are  opposing  us  ill  our  cam- 
paign for  Civil  Service  Salary  Schedules,  are  giving  as 
one  of  their  excuses  for  their  indefensible  attitude  toward 
the  women  teachers,  that  our  bill  now  before  the  legislature 
does  not  protect  '  the  primary  teachers,'  and 

"  Whereas,  We  believe  that  this  expressed  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  the  primary  teacher  is  insincere,  and  is  evidenced 
for  the  purpose  of  blinding  the  members  of  the  legislature, 
the  taxpayers,  and  others  to  the  true  motives  behind  the 
actions  of  these  male  opponents ;  and 

"  Whereas,  No  '  primary  teachers '  have  authorized  or 
engaged  said  male  opponents  of  our  bill  to  enter  any  plea 
in  behalf  of  said  '  primary  teachers,'  therefore 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  resents  this  unwar- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         159 

ranted  reference  to  any  of  its  members  by  the  opponents  of 
the  bill  which  said  Association  is  seeking  to  enact  into  law, 
and  brands  as  unworthy  a  manly  man  the  motives  that  impel 
said  opponents  to  hide  their  true  colors  behind  the  plea 
that  they  see  in  our  bill  lack  of  protection  for  the  '  primary 
teacher.' 

"  Primary  teachers :  Emma  Osterndorff,  P.  S.  93,  Man- 
hattan; Emma  McCleary,  P.  S.  16,  Brooklyn;  Emma 
Weber,  P.  S.  62,  Queens;  Margaret  Killion,  P.  S.  39, 
Bronx;  Marie  Sweeney,  P.  S.  17,  Richmond. 

"  Kindergartner :    Martha  Poucher,  P.  S.  32,  Bronx." 


IP  INCREASES  BEFORE  EQUAL  PAY  BEGIN  WITH  THOSE 
RECEIVING  LOWEST  SALARY 

Though  our  male  teacher  opponents  in  their  attempts  to 
weaken  our  ranks,  have  tried  to  make  it  appear  that  a  few 
of  our  higher  salaried  members  are  actuated  by  selfish 
motives,  our  work  in  decrying  the  increases  for  women 
principals  and  for  district  superintendents  proves  the  con- 
trary. 

Mrs.  Moriarty  has  always  said  when  "  Equal  Pay  For 
Women  Principals "  or  even  increase  for  principals,  was 
under  discussion :  "  Let  the  principals  wait ;  begin  with  the 
lowest  salaries." 

The  increase  of  the  salary  of  district  superintendent  from 
$5ocx)  to  $6000  was  defeated  by  only  one  vote. 

The  following  letters  bear  on  the  subject  of  this  increase : 

The  regard  in  which  the  proposed  increase  is  held  is 
shown  by  the  following  letter,  written  by  Grace  C.  Strachan, 
herself  a  district  superintendent  and  president  of  the  Inter- 
borough  Association  of  Women  Teachers.  A  copy  of  this 
letter  has  been  received  by  every  member  of  the  Board  of 
Education : 

"  Although  I  believe  that  the  arguments  in  favor  of  pay- 
ing District  Superintendents  a  higher  salary  than  that  of 


i6o         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

any  principal  are  sound,  just  and  reasonable,  I  take  the 
liberty  of  strongly  urging  you  to  postpone  your  approval 
of  the  proposed  amendment  of  Section  65  of  the  By-Laws 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  salary  of  District  Super- 
intendents, until  such  section  is  amended  for  the  benefit  of 
the  grade  teachers. 

"  The  higher  salaried  members  of  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers  have  always  held  that  if  the 
adjustment  of  salaries  prayed  for  by  said  association  can- 
not be  secured  for  all  members  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
that  the  beginning  shall  be  made  with  the  lowest  salaried 
teachers,  namely,  the  teachers  that  are  paid  under  Schedule 
III." 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

While  it  is  true  that  I  objected  to  the  increase  of  the 
district  superintendents'  salaries,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  mis- 
understood in  this  connection  or  to  receive  any  credit  to 
which  I  am  not  entitled,  and  so  I  feel  constrained  to  state 
that  I  believe  the  salary  of  a  district  superintendent  should 
be  greater  than  that  of  any  principal.  At  present  the  prin- 
cipal of  a  high  or  a  training  school  is  paid  the  same  salary 
as  a  district  superintendent.  Yet  no  one  will  deny  that  a 
district  superintendent  has  greater  responsibility,  heavier 
labor  and  greater  official  expenses.  For  instance,  during 
the  past  summer  I  had  twenty-six  vacation  schools,  vacation 
playgrounds  and  evening  playgrounds,  which  I  was  obliged 
to  inspect  and  report  on  formally,  including  in  my  report 
a  rating  for  each  individual  teacher. 

If  a  high  school  principal  works  in  one  of  these  vacation 
playgrounds  or  schools  he  or  she  is  paid  a  regular  per 
diem  salary.  In  like  manner,  I  am  obliged  to  examine  the 
evening  schools  in  my  districts  and  report  on  them  at  least 
twice  in  the  year  and  rate  each  principal  and  teacher. 
Should  a  high  school  principal  take  the  principalship  of  an 
evening  school,  he  would  receive  $7  a  night. 

The  traveling  and  restaurant  expenses  absolutely  incum- 
bent   upon    district    superintendents    are    naturally    much 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         i6i 

greater  than  those  of  a  high  school  principal.  While  the 
high  school  principal  has  but  one  school  to  reach  every  day 
and  can  have  a  permanent  luncheon  place,  the  district  super- 
intendent has  often  twenty  or  more  schools.  Besides  all 
this,  a  district  superintendent  is  elected  for  a  limited  time, 
while  a  principal  has  a  permanent  tenure  after  the  first 
three  years. 

For  all  these  reasons  I  think  that  the  salary  of  district 
superintendent  should  be  higher  than  that  of  high  school 
principal.  I  think  further  that  it  should  be  a  higher  salary 
than  that  of  a  member  of  the  board  of  examiners,  and  I 
hope  that  the  necessary  adjustment  may  soon  be  properly 
made.  However,  I  shall  continue  to  object  to  any  increases 
in  the  salaries  of  the  higher  paid  officials  until  the  salaries 
of  the  teachers — especially  the  teachers  in  the  schedules 
running  from  $600  to  $1240 — have  been  increased,  accord- 
ing to  the  schedules  approved  by  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers. 

Grace  C.  Strachan. 

Brooklyn,  December  28,  1909. 


EQUAL  PAY   IN    INSTALMENTS 

The  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  has  said :  "  If  the 
Board  of  Education  has  been  wasting  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  in  paying  extra  *  salaries  to  men  for  work 
which  women  could  have  done  just  as  well,  this  should  be 
frankly  admitted.'  I  have  elsewhere  shown  that  in  one 
school  with  126 (  ?)  boys  in  seven  classes,  seven  men  were 
employed.  I  know  of  another  school  which  with  74  boys 
in  classes  above  6B,  was  costing  the  city  $3500  for  a  male 
principal,  and  $2400  for  a  male  teacher  in  the  8B  class  of 
15  boys  and  19  girls." 

Furthermore,  that  our  Association  has  been  not  only  will- 
ing but  anxious  to  lessen  to  the  taxpayer  the  burden  of 
establishing  our  "  Equal  Pay  "  principle,  is  proven  by  our 
Gledhill-Foley  bill  (1909)  and  the  Somers'  resolution 
(1910.)     The  former  provides  "that  each  member  of  the 


l62         EQUAL  PAY  rpQR  EQUAL   WORK 

teaching  and  supervising  staff  shall  at  once  become  entitled 
to  all  the  emolument  in  accordance  with  above  schedule 
to  which  said  person  is  entitled  by  reason  of  merit,  experi- 
ence and  position  held;  hut  the  Board  of  Education  may 
limit  the  expense  of  putting  these  schedules  into  effect  by 
.  making  the  highest  salary  to  be  paid  to  any  teacher  or  su- 
pervisor in  the  year  1910  and  each  year  thereafter  until  the 
maximum  salary  shall  have  been  reached,  the  salary  in  the 
proposed  schedule  which  is  equal  to  or  next  higher  than 
the  amount  that  would  be  obtained  by  adding  two  of  the 
annual  increments  in  said  schedule  to  the  salary  due  said 
teacher  or  supervisor  under  the  present  schedule." 

The  Somers'  resolution  provided:  "That  such  revised 
schedules  be  put  into  effect  as  soon  as  funds  sufficient  there- 
fore are  provided  by  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportion- 
ment, and  that  pending  full  financial  ability,  the  increases 
in  women  teachers'  salaries  be  paid  in  annual  instal- 
ments which  shall  be  not  less  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the 
difference  between  the  maximum  salaries  now  fixed  for  men 
and  the  maximum  salaries  now  fixed  for  women  occupying 
the  same  position,  except  that  for  the  year  1910  there  shall 
be  a  flat  increase  of  not  less  than  $120  per  annum  for  all 
women  teachers  below  the  7A  grade  and  not  less  than  $120 
for  all  women  teachers  of  special  subjects." 

That  this  has  been  the  disposition  of  the  Interborough 
from  the  beginning,  is  shown  by  an  article  that  appeared  in 
the  Globe  of  March  11,  1907. 

Later.  I  called  on  Mr.  Abraham  Stern  and  told  him  we 
were  willing  to  spread  the  increase  over  three  or  four 
years,  and  that  we  would  like  to  incorporate  a  clause  making 
such  provision  in  our  bill.  He  said  such  a  clause  would 
probably  render  our  bill  unconstitutional,  and  realizing 
that  he  was  a  lawyer,  we  dropped  the  matter. 

The  Globe  article  described  a  meeting  of  our  Executive 
Committee  and  said :  "  Serious  consideration  was  also 
given  to  an  amendment  which  would  limit  the  immediate 
increase  in  expense  to  the  city.  The  question  was  raised 
as  to  whether  such  amendment  would  not  invaHdate  the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         163 

bill,  and  pending  a  legal  opinion  on  this  point,  action  has 
been  postponed. 

"  If  it  is  found  that  such  a  provision  can  be  incorporated 
in  the  bill  without  invalidating  it,  an  amendment  will  be 
prepared.  Just  what  the  amendment  will  be  it  is  impossible 
to  state  definitely  at  this  time.  It  is  agreed  that  every 
teacher  now  in  the  system  receiving  less  than  $900  should 
on  January  i,  next,  be  raised  to  the  minimum  provided  in 
the  law,  and  that  thereafter  should  receive  an  annual  in- 
crease of  $105.  Although  opinions  differ,  there  are  many 
who  believe  that  those  who  would  receive  an  immediate 
increase  of  more  than  a  certain  sum — probably  $400 — 
should  receive  such  increase  in  two  or  more  annual  instal- 
ments according  to  the  amount  of  the  increase.  It  is  also 
agreed  that  any  teacher  having  served  twenty  years  or  more 
on  January  i  should  be  immediately  raised  to  the  minimum 
maximum  fixed  in  the  law.  Nothing  definite  has  been 
decided  as  yet  regarding  this  matter." 


'ANALYSIS  OF  BOARD'S  SCHEDULES 

THE  BOAEiD  OBJECTS  TO  4  MILL  TAX,  BUT  ASKS  FOR  $5,o6o,- 
469.02  IN  EXCESS  OF  3  MILL  TAX 

An  anomaly  has  been  presented  by  the  board's  opposition 
to  the  four  mill  clause  in  our  Equal  Pay  bills  and  its  presen- 
tation of  schedules  in  the  budget  of  1909  calling  for  an  in- 
crease in  the  general  fund  which  required  $5,060,469.02  in 
addition  to  the  three  mill  tax.  Of  this  increase  $3,273,163.52 
was  for  increases  in  salaries. 

Ever  since  Governor  Hughes  in  his  veto  message  on  the 
"White  Bill,"  declared  that  in  the  present  schedules  there 
are  "glaring  inequalities  that  clearly  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  continue,"  the  board  has  been  on  record  as  asking 
for  increase  in  salaries.  The  public  generally  has  always 
supposed  that  their  action  in  this  connnection  indicated  a 
great  victory  for  the  women  teachers,  but  that  this  sup- 
position is  not  borne  out  by  facts  and  figures,  the  following 
shows : 


i64  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


REPORT  OF  AUDITOR  OF  THE  INTERBOROUGH  ASSOCIATION 
FIGURES 

To  the  Board  of  Education : 

I  have  the  honor  to  comply  with  your  directions  of  Janu- 
ary 26,  1910,  (see  Journal,  page  224),  to  verify  the  figures 
contained  within  a  communication  of  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  relating  to  the  tentative 
schedules  of  teachers'  salaries  adopted  by  the  Board  of 
Education  in  1907  and  1908,  and  included  within  the  annual 
budgets  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Appor- 
tionment for  1908,  1909  and  1910. 

The  statements  containing  said  figures  follow  in  categor- 
ical order : 

I.  "  The  maximum  of  the  kindergarten  teachers  is  raised 
$20,  while  the  maximum  of  the  male  first  assistant  of  the 
high  school  is  raised  $500."   (Statement  by  I.  A.  W.  T.) 

The  above  statement  is  literally  correct,  but  it  is  only 
a  small  part  of  a  full  comparison  of  these  two  extremes 
of  the  teaching  corps.    A  more  complete  analysis  shows : 

The  minimum  salary  of  a  kindergartner  is  raised  from 
$600  to  $660  per  annum,  or  $60,  an  increase  of  10  per  cent. 
The  maximum  salary  is  raised  from  $1240  to  $1260  per 
annum,  or  $20,  an  increase  of  1.61  per  cent.,  but  such 
maximum  salary  is  reached  in  sixteen  years  under  the  pro- 
posed plan  as  against  seventeen  years  under  the  present 
method.    The  annual  increment  of  $40  is  unchanged. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  seventeen  years  under 
this  schedule  would  earn  $15,640  under  the  present  method, 
and  $16,620  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $980, 
or  6.26  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  739  kindergartners  now 
employed  is,  under  the  present  method,  $823.38,  and,  under 
the  proposed  plan,  $882.73,  an  average  increase  of  $59.35 
per  person,  or  7.2  per  cent.     There  are  now  but  twelve 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         165 

kindergartners  in  the  maximum  salary  year,  and  these 
would  be  increased  from  $1240  to  $1260  per  annum. 

The  y2y  remaining  kindergartners  would  each  receive  an 
increase  of  $60  per  annum.  The  aggregate  annual  increase 
for  kindergartners  is  $43,860. 

The  minimum  salary  of  a  male  first  assistant  in  high  and 
training  schools  is  raised  from  $2500  to  $2900  per  annum, 
or  $400,  an  increase  of  16  per  cent.  The  maximum  salary 
is  raised  from  $3000  to  $3500  per  annum,  or  $500,  an 
increase  of  16.66  per  cent.,  but  such  maximum  salary  is 
reached  in  four  years  under  the  proposed  plan  as  against 
six  years  under  the  present  method.  The  annual  increment 
is  increased  from  $100  to  $200,  or  100  per  cent. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  six  years  under  this 
schedule  would  earn  $16,500  under  the  present  method  and 
$19,800  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $3300,  or 
20  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  eighty-seven  male  first 
assistants  affected  by  the  change  of  rate  is,  under  the  pres- 
ent method,  $2,795.40,  and  under  the  proposed  plan, 
$3,311.49,  an  average  increase  of  $516.09  per  person,  or 
18.46  per  cent.  The  aggregate  annual  increase  for  these 
persons  is  $44,900. 

2.  "  The  annual  increment  of  the  primary  teacher  is 
raised  $8 ;  that  of  the  teacher  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
years,  $0;  while  the  annual  increment  of  the  male  first 
assistant  in  the  high  school  is  raised  $100."  (Statement  by 
I.  A.  W.  T.) 

This  statement  is  literally  correct,  but,  as  a  basis  for 
judgment,  it  is  insufficient. 

The  minimum  salary  of  a  woman  teacher  of  grades  from 
I A  to  6B,  inclusive,  is  raised  from  $600  to  $720  per  annum, 
or  $120,  an  increase  of  twenty  per  cent.  The  maximum 
salary  is  raised  from  $1240  to  $1440  per  annum,  or  $200, 
an  increase  of  16.12  per  cent.,  but  such  maximum  salary  is 
reached  in  sixteen  years  under  the  proposed  plan,  as  against 
seven  years  under  the  present  method.    The  annual  incre- 


i66         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

ment  is  increased  from  $40  to  $48  an  increase  of  twenty 
per  cent. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  seventeen  years  under 
this  schedule  would  earn  $15,640  under  the  present  method 
and  $18,720  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $3,080, 
or  19.69  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  10,768  women  teachers 
now  employed  in  Schedule  III  (grades  from  lA  to  6B,  in- 
clusive) is,  under  the  present  method,  $913,69,  and,  under 
the  proposed  plan,  $1,088.85,  an  average  increase  of  $175.16 
per  person,  or  19.16  per  cent.  The  aggregate  annual  in- 
crease for  these  persons  is  $1,886,108. 

The  minimum  salary  of  women  teachers  of  grades  from 
7A  to  8A  inclusive,  is  raised  from  $600  to  $720  per  annum, 
or  $120,  an  increase  of  twenty  per  cent.  The  maximum 
salary  is  raised  from  $1320  to  $1440  per  annum  or  $120, 
an  increase  of  9.09  per  cent.  The  life  of  the  schedule  re- 
mains the  same,  namely,  sixteen  years.  The  annual  incre- 
ment of  $48  is  unchanged. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  sixteen  years  under 
this  schedule  would  earn  $15,360  under  the  present  method, 
and  $17,280  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $1,920, 
or  12.5  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  1380  women  teachers 
now  employed  in  Schedule  IV  (grades  from  7A  to  8A  in- 
clusive) is,  under  the  present  method,  $1252.97,  and  under 
the  proposed  plan,  $1373.14,  an  average  increase  of  $120.17 
per  person,  or  9.59  per  cent.  The  aggregate  annual  in- 
crease for  these  persons  is  $165,840. 

The  schedule  for  male  first  assistants  in  high  schools  is 
analyzed  under  Statement  i,  preceding. 

3.  "  Even  the  annual  increments  of  the  clerical  assistants 
and  library  assistants  in  high  schools  are  raised  $50 — that 
is,  100  per  cent, — in  contrast  to  the  twenty  per  cent  increase 
given  to  the  primary  teachers,  and  the  o  per  cent,  given  to 
kindergarten  teachers  and  those  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
years  of  the  elementary  schools.  Contrast  the  $20  increase 
in  the  maximum  of  the  kindergartner  to  the  $400  increase 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         167 

in  the  maximum  of  the  high  school   library  assistants," 
(Statement  by  I.  A.  W.  T.) 

This  statement  is  literally  correct  but,  as  a  basis  for 
judgment  it  is  insufficient. 

The  minimum  salary  of  a  woman  clerical  assistant  in 
high  and  training  schools  remains  at  $700  per  annum.  The 
maximum  salary  is  raised  from  $1000  to  $1200  per  annum, 
or  $200,  an  increase  of  twenty  per  cent.,  but  such  maximum 
salary  is  reached  in  six  years  under  the  proposed  plan  as 
against  seven  years  under  the  present  method.  The  annual 
increment  is  increased  from  $50  to  $icx),  an  increase  of 
100  per  cent. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  seven  years  under  this 
schedule  would  earn  $5950  under  the  present  method  and 
$6900  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $950,  or 
15.96  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  ten  women  clerical  as- 
sistants affected  by  the  change  of  rate  is,  under  the  present 
method,  $899,  and,  under  the  proposed  plan,  $1050,  an 
average  increase  of  $151  per  person,  or  16.79  P^^  cent.  The 
aggregate  annual  increase  for  these  persons  is  $1510. 

The  minimum  salary  of  a  male  clerical  assistant  in  high 
schools  is  raised  from  $900  to  $1000  per  annnum,  or  $100, 
an  increase  of  11. 11  per  cent.  The  maximum  salary  is 
raised  from  $1200  to  $1500  per  annum,  or  $300,  an  increase 
of  25  per  cent,  but  such  maximum  salary  is  reached 
in  six  years  under  the  proposed  plan,  as  against  seven  years 
under  the  present  method.  The  annual  increment  is  in- 
creased from  $50  to  $100,  an  increase  of  100  per  cent. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  seven  years  under  thij 
schedule  would  earn  $7350  under  the  present  method,  and 
$9000  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $1650,  or 
22.44  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  five  male  clerical  assist- 
ants affected  by  the  change  of  rate  is,  under  the  present 
method,  $1120,  under  the  proposed  plan,  $1400,  an  average 
increase  of  $280  per  person,  or  twenty-five  per  cent.  The 
aggregate  annual  increase  for  these  persons  is  $1400. 


i68         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  minimum  salary  of  women  library  assistants  in  higH 
and  training  schools  is  raised  from  $700  to  $800  per  annum, 
or  $100,  an  increase  oi  14.28  per  cent.  The  maximum  sal- 
ary is  raised  from  $1,000  to  $1,400  per  annum,  or  $400,  an 
increase  of  40  per  cent.  The  life  of  the  schedule  remains 
the  same,  namely,  7  years.  The  annual  increment  is 
increased  from  $50  to  $100,  an  increase  of  100  per 
cent. 

A  hypothetical  person  serving  for  7  years  under  this 
schedule  would  earn  $5,950  under  the  present  method  and 
$7,700  under  the  proposed  plan,  an  increase  of  $1,750,  or 
29.41  per  cent. 

The  average  annual  salary  of  the  31  women  library  as- 
sistants now  employed  is,  under  the  present  method,  $950, 
and,  under  the  proposed  plan,  $1,300,  an  average  increase 
of  $350  per  person,  or  36.84  per  cent.  The  aggregate  an- 
nual increase  for  these  persons  is  $4,550. 

There  were  no  men  library  assistants  included  in  the 
budget  for  1910. 

The  schedules  for  kindergartners  and  male  first  assistants 
in  high  schools  are  analyzed  under  statement  i,  preceding, 
but  it  is  necessary,  in  the  interest  of  particularity,  to  again 
state  that,  of  the  739  kindergartners  now  employed,  only 
12  have  reached  the  maximum  year.  These  12  would  re- 
ceive increases  of  $20  each. 

4.  "  Again,  this  budget  includes  an  average  increase  of 
$363.14  for  each  of  the  560  men  in  the  high  schools,  while 
the  9,971  women  in  the  elementary  schools  would  receive 
only  an  average  increase  of  $177.07."  The  budget  of  the 
Board  of  Education  for  1910,  showing  the  teachers  actually 
employed  May  31,  1909,  has  been  used  as  a  basis  for  pre- 
paring the  two  tables  of  analysis  presented  herewith." — 
(Statement  by  I.  A.  W.  T.) 

The  budget  shows  that  14,751  women  of  all  classes  would 
receive  an  aggregate  increase  of  $2,639,762,  representing 
an  increase  of  average  salary  from  $1,033.42  to  $1,212.37, 
or  $178.95  per  person,  or  17.31  per  cent. 

The  budget  also  shows  that  582  men  of  all  classes  would 
receive  an  aggregate  increase  of  $206,215,  representing  an 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         169 

increase  of  average  salary  from  $2,144.34  to  $2,498.66,  or 
$354.32  per  person,  or  16.52  per  cent. 

The  statement  regarding-  9,971  women  and  560  men  is, 
therefore,  incorrect.  There  is  a  wide  discrepancy  between 
the  number  of  persons  referred  to  in  this  paragraph  of  the 
circular  and  the  actual  number  as  found  in  the  budget. — 
(The  9,971  is  the  number  of  women  in  grades  i  A— 6  B. 
Inclusive.  The  560  is  the  number  of  men  high  school 
teachers. — Grace  C.  Strachan.) 

5.  "  In  the  special  subjects  we  find  teachers  of  music, 
sewing,  drawing  and  physical  training  with  an  increase  in 
their  maximum  of  $300  to  $400,  while  the  teachers  of  cook- 
ing receive  no  increase — that  is,  the  teachers  of  music  and 
physical  training  receive  $600  more  than  the  teachers  of 
cooking." — (Statement  by  I.  A.  W.  T.) 

This  statement  is  imperfectly  framed  and  thus  leads  to 
seeming  ambiguity.  (The  statement  refers  to  maximums 
and  is  absolutely  correct  regarding  them. — Grace  C. 
Strachan.) 

In  the  schedule  for  women  teachers  of  music  and  draw- 
ing the  minimum  salary  remains  the  same,  namely,  $1,000 
per  annum;  the  annual  increment  also  remains  the  same, 
namely,  $100  per  annum.  The  life  of  the  schedule,  how- 
ever, is  extended  from  5  years  to  9  years,  making  the  max- 
imum salary  $1,800  per  annum,  instead  of  $1,400  per 
annum. 

In  the  schedule  for  women  teachers  of  sewing  and  shop- 
work,  the  minimum  salary  remains  the  same,  namely,  $900 
per  annum ;  the  annual  increment  also  remains  the  same, 
namely,  $100  per  annum.  The  life  of  the  schedule,  how- 
ever, is  extended  from  4  years  to  7  years,  making  the  maxi- 
mum salary  $1,500  per  annum,  instead  of  $1,200  per  annum. 

In  the  schedule  for  women  teachers  of  physical  training 
the  minimum  salary  is  increased  from  $900  per  annum  to 
$1,000  per  annum.  The  annual  increment  remains  the  same, 
namely,  $100  per  annum;  but  the  life  of  the  schedule  is 
extended  from  4  years  to  9  years,  making  the  maximum  sal- 
ary $1,800  per  annum,  instead  of  $1,200  per  annum. 

In  the  schedule  for  men  teachers  of  music  and  drawing 


I70         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  minimum  salary  remains  the  same,  namely,  $1,200  per 
annum;  the  annual  increment  also  remains  the  same, 
namely,  $100,  but  the  life  of  the  schedule  is  extended  from 
5  years  to  9  years,  making  the  maximum  salary  $2,000  per 
annum,  instead  of  $1,600  per  annum. 

14,764  women  teachers  receive  increase  of  $2,639,927 
581  men  "  "  "  "        206,050 


15.345  $2,845,977 

Average  of  women's  increase  $178.80 
Average  of  men's  increase       $354.65 

These  figures  are  substantially  correct. 

Permit  me  to  point  out  that  neither  the  figures  of  the 
Teachers'  Association  as  to  difference  of  minimums,  maxi- 
mums, and  increments,  nor  the  comments  of  this  bureau 
thereon,  should,  of  themselves,  be  accepted  as  either  proof 
or  disproof  of  the  correctness  of  the  basic  principles  of 
either  or  both  the  present  method  or  the  proposed  plan  of 
fixing  teachers'  salaries.  Such  figures  are  infallible  only 
in  the  restricted  sense  that  they  are  correct  arithmetical  re- 
sults ;  such  figures  are  not  conclusive  as  to  the  fundamental 
correctness  or  incorrectness  of  either  of  the  factors  used, 
namely,  the  present  method,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  pro- 
posed plan  on  the  other. 

The  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  is  that,  granting  the  basic 
salaries  for  the  several  classes  of  teachers  to  be  equitably 
determined  after  consideration  of  all  appropriate  factors, 
then  any  mere  recital  of  the  resultant  differences  between 
the  present  method  and  the  proposed  plan  is  simply  an 
expression  or  statement  of  previous  "  inequalities  "  reduced 
to  arithmetical  terms.  In  other  words,  the  principle  in- 
volved is  not  what  is  the  increase  in  the  minimum  or  the 
maximum  salary  of  one  class  of  teacher  as  compared  with 
another  class,  nor,  again,  as  to  whether  the  annual  incre- 
ment is  increased  or  not ;  the  question  is  solely  as  to  whether 
the  proposed  schedules  are  equitable  and  just,  and,  if  that 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK        171 

be  demonstrated,  then  the  increase  of  the  proposed  plan 
over  the  present  method  is  simply  a  matter  of  mathematics 
and  not  of  argument — that  is,  the  increase  merely  repre- 
sents the  cost  of  making  perfect  that  which  is  imperfect. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

Henry  R.  M.  Cook, 
Auditor  of  the  Board  of  Education. 
February  18,  19 10. 

And  yet  the  schedules  are  presented  as  being  "  For  the 
women  teachers."  And  because  we  tried  to  make  the  facts 
clear  to  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  the  public,  and  because 
we  appeared  before  said  board  to  present  the  following 
resolutions,  Senator  Travis,  in  the  speech  in  which  he  tried 
to  excuse  his  vote  against  our  bill  in  1908  after  voting  for 
it  in  1907,  and  still  insisting  that  he  believed  in  "  Equal 
Pay,"  asked :  "  Who  were  the  people  that  opposed  the  ad- 
justment of  these  inequalities?  They  were  the  women 
teachers,  represented  by  their  leader.  Miss  Strachan,  who 
demanded  that  the  Board  of  Estimate  veto  the  appropria- 
tion." A  study  of  our  resolutions  will  show  that  this  was 
not  any  more  accurate  than  the  same  senator's  expressions 
on  the  cost  of  our  bill. 

October  3,  1908. 

At  the  regular  bi-monthly  meeting  of  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  the  following  resolutions 
were  adopted : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  action  of  the  Interborough  Associ- 
ation of  Women  Teachers  on  the  new  salary  schedules 
which  the  Board  of  Education  has  included  in  its  budget 
for  the  year  1908,  be  as  follows : 

"  1st.  Approval  of  all  parts  of  such  schedules  as  reduce 
the  present  discriminations  against  women  teachers  and 
supervisors. 

"  2d.  Disapproval  of  all  parts  of  such  schedules  as  in- 
crease the  salaries  of  men  already  receiving  more  than 
women  occupying  the  same  position. 

"  3d.  Disapproval  of  all  parts  of  such  schedules  as  tend 
to  impair  the  value  of-  the  Kindergarten  and  of  Domestic 


172         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

Science  in  our  School  System ;  and  be  it  further  resolved : 
That  this  action  of  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  be  presented  to  the  Board  of  Estimate,  either  per- 
sonally, through  one  of  its  officers,  or  in  written  form,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  public  hearing  set  by  said  Board  on  the 
Budget  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  the  year  1909 ;  and 
be  it  further  resolved, 

"  That  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers 
prays  the  Board  of  Estimate  to  take  such  action  as  will 
cause  the  said  salary  schedules  to  be  so  amended  that  men 
and  women  occupying  the  same  position  in  the  public 
schools  of  our  city  shall  receive  the  same  pay." 

The  resolution  was  adopted  unanimously  October  3,  1908. 
790  delegates  present.  Similar  resolutions  were  adopted 
October  9,  1909. 

On  October  15,  1908,  we  sent  the  following  letter  to  the 
Board  of  Estimate: 

"  To  the  Members  of  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Appor- 
tionment: 
"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers 
submits  the  following  specific  instances  of  ways  in  which 
the  Educational  Budget  may  be  decreased,  by  denying  the 
proposed  increases  to  male  teachers  in  High  and  Training 
Schools : 

"  High  Schools- 
Male  Clerical  Assistants,  4 — Total  increase,  $  1,000 
Male  Library  Assistant,  i —  "  "  330 
Male  Junior  Teachers,  17 — -  "  "  1,100 
Male  Assistant  Teachers,  439 —  "  "  145,420 
Male  First  Assistants,        64 —    "          "  33.300 


Total  for  High  School  Teachers $181,150 

Training  School  for  Teachers — 

Male  Assistant  Teachers,      9 — Total  increase,    $    2,620 
Male  First  Assistants,  8 —    "  "  3,100 


Total  for  Training  School  Teachers $    5,720 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK         173 

"  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  sum  of  $186,870  can  be 
deducted  from  the  Budget  by  denying  these  proposed  in- 
creases to  male  teachers,  whose  salaries  without  said  pro- 
posed increases  will  still  be  greater  than  the  salaries  of 
women  occupying  the  same  position,  even  should  the  in- 
creases proposed  in  the  women's  salaries  be  granted. 

"The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  re- 
spectfully suggests  that  a  further  saving  could  be  made, 
while  the  city  continues  to  pay  women  teachers  less  than 
men  occupying  the  same  position,  by  replacing  male  teach- 
ers in  charge  of  girls'  classes  in  the  elementary  schools  by 
women  teachers.  It  is  well  known  that  in  at  least  one 
school  in  Manhattan,  there  are  no  women  teachers  in  the 
grades  of  the  last  two  years,  although  there  are  many  girl 
pupils  in  such  grades. 

"  Respectfully  submitted, 

"  Grace  C.  Strachan, 

"  President." 

In  the  discussion  resulting  in  the  Board  of  Estimate, 
October  4,,  1908,  on  the  presentation  of  these  schedules,  the 
following  facts  were  emphasized : 

The  per  capita  cost  of  pupil  in  high  school,     .      .  $90.00 
The  per  capita  cost  of  pupil  in  College  of  the  city 

of   New  York, $185.50 

The  per  capita  cost  of  pupil  in  Normal  College,  .  $5«i3 

Mr.  Maxwell's  Tenth  Annual  Report  shows: 

Per  capita  cost  of  pupil  in  Elementary  School,    .  $31.61 

High  Schools,      .      .  $92.30 

Nautical  School,  .      .  $338.27 
Per  capita  cost  of   pupil   in  Training   Schools 

(Theory   Department), $102.69 

Per  capita  cost  of  pupil  in  Truant  School,     .      .  $58.03 

This  is  estimated  on  average  daily  attendance,  and  in- 
cludes onlv  the  cost  based  on  salaries.     When  it  is  con- 


174         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

sidered  that  the  salaries  of  superintendents,  examiners, 
directors,  and  other  attendance  officers  are  all  classed  with 
the  expenditures  for  elementary  schools,  and  when  it  is 
further  considered  that  the  cost  per  pupil  of  scholastic  sup- 
plies, including  library  books  and  apparatus,  is  less  for  the 
elementary  schools  than  for  any  other,  it  is  evident  that  the 
cost  of  a  high  school  pupil  is  three  times  that  of  an  elemen- 
tary school  pupil,  while  six  pupils  could  be  paid  for  in  ele- 
mentary school  with  the  cost  of  one  "boy  in  New  York  City 
College.  Even  the  boy  in  the  Truant  school  costs  83.8  per 
cent,  more  than  the  boy  in  the  elementary  school,  although 
the  salary  of  the  truant  officer  is  added  to  the  other  expen- 
ses of  the  elementary  school  boy.  As  for  the  Nautical 
school,  that  is  a  record  breaker  indeed.  Almost  eleven  boya 
could  be  taught  in  elementary  school  for  the  average  cost 
of  one  boy  on  the  School  Ship,  based  on  expenditures  for 
salaries  of  officers,  for  sustenance  and  crew. 

Poor  elementary  school  pupil  and  poor  elementary  school 
teacher !  And  yet  what  is  the  reason  for  our  public  school 
system?  Is  it  not  the  education  of  the  elementary  school 
pupils?  Should  not  our  first  thought  be  of  them?  Should 
not  our  greatest  efforts  be  toward  perfecting  our  system 
in  regard  to  them?  Yet  the  contrarry  is  true.  The  course 
of  study  is  planned  not  for  the  ninety-five  per  cent  that 
never  even  finish  the  elementary  school  course,  not  even 
for  the  five  per  cent  that  do  graduate  from  the  elementary 
schools,  but  for  the  pitiful  fraction  of  one  per  cent  that 
enter  college. 

And  yet  we  are  treated  to  false  appeals  for  more  money 
to  get  "  more  men  teachers  in  the  high  schools  "  when  sta- 
tistics show  there  are  already  more  men  for  the  high  school 
boys  than  there  are  women  for  the  high  school  girls! 

MONEY  FOR  OTHER   INCREASES 

Speaking  of  Mayor  McClellan's  excuse  for  his  veto  of 
the  Equal  Pay  for  Teachers  Bill — that  it  would  cost  $13, 
000,000  and  the  city  could  not  afford  it — Mr.  Towns  com- 
mented caustically  upon  the  record  of  the  present  adminis- 


Hon.  James  W.  Wadsvvorth,  Jr., 

Speaker  of  Assembly  During  the  Four  Years  of  "Equal  Pay" 
Fight. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         175 

tration,  stating  that  it  was  the  first  time  the  Mayor  had 
shown  timidity  in  spending  the  people's  money  freely. 

"  Beside  the  amount  of  money  he  has  spent,"  said  Mr. 
Towns,  "  this  teacher's  increase  apportionment  might  be 
compared  with  an  attempt  to  start  a  fertilizing  factory  with 
one  small  canary  bird  on  the  highest  peak  of  Mount  Chim- 
borazo." 

During  all  this  time  that  we  were  being  opposed  on  the 
ground  of  greater  expense  to  taxpayer,  employees  of  other 
departments  were  receiving  increases. 

In  a  pamphlet  by  Comptroller  Metz,  entitled  "  Cost  of 
Government  of  the  City  of  New  York,"  with  an  analysis 
of  the  Budget  for  the  year  1909,  appears  on  page  34,  "  the 
necessity  for  this  action  I  personally  regret,  for  some  pro- 
vision, I  believe,  should  have  been  made  for  the  increase  of 
the  salaries  of  the  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools,  of 
Police  Lieutenants  and  Sergeants  and  fourth  grade  firemen 
and  Patrolmen,  and  there  should  have  been  allowances  for 
the  increase  of  salaries  of  many  worthy  employees  in  the 
various  Departments,  but  in  the  interests  of  economy  I 
joined  with  my  associates  in  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment  for  a  Budget  which  should  contain  no  salary 
increases  whatever," 

Being  myself  a  taxpayer  as  well  as  a  school  teacher,  such 
press  articles  as  the  following  naturally  had  a  special  at- 
traction for  me  during  the  years  that  the  Board  of  Esti- 
mate was  denying  our  appeal. 

The  Brooklyn  Eagle,  May  28,  1909.  "  The  city  may  be 
too  poor  to  build  subways.  The  debt  limit  may  always  be 
conveniently  used  as  a  bugaboo.  But,  to  use  a  vernacular 
expression  of  a  Tammany  man,  there  was  a  *  jail  delivery ' 
of  salary  increases  on  the  calendar  of  the  Board  of  Esti- 
mate to-day. 

"  Here  are  a  few  of  the  increases  which  Controller  Metz 
seeks  to  make.  They  were  all  reported  upon  favorably  by 
the  select  committee  on  salaries,  of  which  Mr.  Metz  is  a 
member.  The  first  two  fix  the  grade  of  examiner  in  the 
Finance  Department  at  $5,000  a  year  for  two  incumbents. 
One  of  the  men  whom  the  controller  intends  to  favor  was 


176         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

receiving  a  salary  of  $1,050  when  Mr.  Metz  came  into 
office. 

"  That  is  not  all  for  the  Finance  Department.  For  the 
chief  bookkeeper,  Mr.  Metz  has  provided  a  $1,000  increase. 
The  chief  auditor  is  similarly  favored.  The  head  of  the  law 
and  adjustment  division  is  also  given  a  $1,00  increase. 

"  There  are  two  other  examiners  in  the  Finance  Depart- 
ment, whom  Mr.  Metz  evidently  believes  should  be  favored 
with  an  increase  in  salary.  For  them  he  intends  to  fix 
$3,000  each.  The  deputy  collector  of  assessments  and  ar- 
rears in  Manhattan  also  finds  it  hard  to  get  along  on  his 
present  salary,  so  Mr.  Metz  has  decided  to  raise  it  to  $4,000- 
Then  there  are  two  accountants  to  whom  Mr.  Metz  pro- 
poses to  give  salaries,  respectively  $2,400  and  $2,500. 

"  President  Coler  is  just  as  lavish  as  Mr.  Metz.  He  pro- 
poses the  establishment  of  clerk  to  the  local  improvement 
boards  at  $3,000  per  annum.  So  that  some  of  the  inspectors 
of  plumbing  in  the  Building  Department  may  receive  an 
increase  he  proposes  the  fixing  of  a  grade  at  $2,400.  To 
the  man  who  drives  Mr.  Coler's  automobile  he  has  decided 
to  give  a  $300  increase,  fixing  his  salary  at  $1,500. 

The  chief  engineer  of  the  bureau  of  sewers,  Mr.  Coler 
believes,  is  being  underpaid  unless  he  receives  a  salary  of 
$6,000.  A  resolution  fixing  the  salary  at  that  amount  was 
accordingly  introduced.  The  same  opinion  evidently  is 
entertained  by  Mr.  Coler  toward  the  chief  engineer  of  the 
bureau  of  highways  and  the  chief  engineer  of  the  bureau 
of  sewers.    The  salary  of  both  officials  is  fixed  at  $6,000. 

Then  comes  the  superintendent  of  Mr.  Coler's  municipal 
asphalt  plant.  Mr.  Coler  proposed  to  fix  his  salary  at 
$2,500.  But  for  the  man  who  is  known  as  the  searcher  in 
his  office,  Mr.  Coler  also  proposed  an  increase.  His  salary 
in  the  future  will  be  $1,800. 

Altogether  139  salary  increases  were  on  the  calendar. 
Besides  Mr.  Metz  and  Mr.  Coler,  the  health  department  and 
the  other  borough  presidents  divided  the  honors." 

The  Eagle  of  June  5,  1909,  said  editorially :  "  Increases 
for  139  city  employees  passed  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment.    For  example,  $3,000  is  a  good  fat  salary 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         177 

for  the  clerk  to  the  local  improvement  boards  of  Brooklyn. 
Engineers  of  the  Bureau  of  Sewers  and  of  Highways,  are, 
of  course,  technical  positions,  but  you  can  hire  pretty  good 
engineers  for  less  than  $6,000,  the  salary  fixed  for  those 
positions.  Nobody  wants  the  city  to  be  niggardly  in  its 
pay,  but  between  that  and  wholesale  extravagance  there  is 
room  to  draw  the  line  of  justice  tinged  with  generosity." 

The  total  sum  of  the  increases  in  the  municipal  depart- 
ments, exclusive  of  fire,  police  and  school  departments,  for 
the  six  months'  period,  commencing  Jan.  I,  1907,  to  July 
I,  1907,  was  $633,021.70. 

Coler's  Bulletin: 

•  •  •  •  •' 

"  But  there  are  other  specifications. 

"  Not  to  mention  the  Kissena  Park  land  purchases,  the 
purchase  of  waterfront  property  for  ten  millions,  whose 
assessed  valuation  was  only  one-fifth  that  amount,  and  a 
dozen  other  little  real  estate  deals  of  that  kind,  there  is  the 
astounding  waste  in  the  Catskill  watershed,  where  land 
commissioners  are  paid  fifty  dollars  a  day,  and  where  a 
contract  bid  is  thrown  out  for  no  apparent  reason  than  that 
it  is  two  million  dollars  lower  than  the  bid  which  is  ac- 
cepted. 

"  There  is  the  nine  million  dollar  subway  made  useless 
by  reason  of  the  failure  of  the  city  to  (Complete  it. 

"  There  is  the  Queensboro  Bridge,  built  at  a  cost  of 
twenty  million  dollars,  and  so  overloaded  with  steel  as  to 
make  it  dangerous  and  to  involve  ani  admitted  waste  of  two 
million  dollars.  In  order  to  make  this  bridge  safe  the  steel 
had  to  be  taken  oif  again,  and  the  provision  for  elevated 
railroad  service  had  to  be  abandoned.  This  reduces  the 
capacity  of  the  bridge  one-half.  It  was  of  this  bridge  that 
the  Scientific  American  said,  it  was  the  greatest  engineer- 
ing blunder  in  bridge  construction.  It  was  at  the  celebra- 
tion of  this  bridge  opening  that  an  observer  remarked: 
*  Could  there  be  anything  more  absurd  than  the  parade  of 
the  bridge  engineers.  It  is  like  a  procession  of  doctors  at 
the  funeral  of  a  victim  of  their  blunders.' 


•178         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"The  reduction  of  its  capacity  one-half  and  the  actual 
cost  of  the  excess  steel  on  this  bridge  make  a  total  of  waste 
amounting  to  $12,000,000. 

"  Another  item  is  thq  construction  of  a  three-and-a-quar- 
ter-million  terminal  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  instead  of 
adopting  the  simple  Poulsen  plan  of  bridge  relief  which  can 
be  installed  for  a  quarter  of  a  million." 

Mr.  William  M.  Hoge  says:  "We  are  only  getting  on 
the  fringe  of  it "  in  Article  on  "  How  New  York  City  is 
fleeced  out  of  Millions,"  written  for  Eagle,  Dec.  5,  1909, 
by  Frederick  Boyd  Stevenson. 

The  New  York  American,  Dec.  30,  1909,  said:  Comp- 
troller will  show  it  up  in  Report — Some  prices  quadruple — ■ 
Yearly  waste  $50,000,000. 

The  statement  of  Supreme  Court  Justice  Wesley  O. 
Howard  of  Troy,  that  40  per  cent  of  money  appropriated 
for  public  use  is  lost  in  graft,  was  echoed  yesterday  by 
President-elect  John  Purroy  Mitchel,  of  the  Board  of  Al- 
dermen, and  by  Comptroller  Metz.  Justice  Howard  was 
provoked  to  the  declaration  by  the  size  of  a  bill  presented 
to  him  by  condemnation  commissioners  on  the  Catskill 
watershed. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  fix  an|  average  percentage  of  graft," 
said  Mr.  Mitchel,  who,  as  Commissioner  of  Accounts,  has 
exposed  graft  continuously  for  three  years.  "  In  some 
cases,  the  graft  is  more  than  40  per  cent,"  and  in  other 
cases  less.  It's  as  high  as  200  per  cent,  and  even  more,  in 
some  of  the  transactions  we  have  uncovered.  I  don't  think 
it  is  possible,  though,  to  average  graft." 

"  Graft  in  condemnation  proceedings  exceeds  40  per 
cent,"  said  Comptroller  Metz.  "Judge  Howard  is  talking 
about  a  graft  I  have  been  showing  up  ever  since  I  became 
Comptroller.  I'll  show  you  in  a  day  or  two,  when  I  make 
my  report  on  condemnation  public  just  how  much  con- 
demnation graft  there  has  been  in  this  town.  In  some 
pieces  the  graft  is  1000  per  cent;  in  others  it  isn't  more 
than  10  per  cent. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         179 

"  There  is  waste  in  some  contracts  and  g"raft  in  others, 
but  there  is  no  estimating  the  amount.  All  I  know  is  that 
the  city  finds  itself  '  stuck '  to  the  tune  of  millions  each 
year.  On  small  things,  where  open  order  contracts  are 
given  by  some  department  heads,  I  have  found  the  size  of 
the  bills  tripled  and  quadrupled.  If  that  ain't  graft,  what 
is  it? 

"  Testimony  taken  by  the  Legislative  Investigating 
Committee  last  winter  showed  that  an  average  of  25  per 
cent  of  the  money  spent  by  the  city  annually  is  wasted. 
The  annual  expenditure  for  all  purposes  exceeds  $200,000,- 
000,  so  the  annual  waste  which  might  come  under  Judge 
Howard's  classification  of  graft  is  $50,000,000." 

UNPAID  TAXES 

I  think  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  taxpayers  who 
oppose  our  bill  to  divert  their  energies  toward  assisting 
the  city  to  collect  its  unpaid  taxes.  It  must  be  realized 
that  whatever  the  cost  of  "  Equal  Pay,"  it  is  simply  the 
measure  of  the  injustice  the  women  teachers  are  laboring 
under.  Those  who  emphasize  this  cost,  including  the 
Board  of  Education,  seem  not  to  realize  that  the  greater 
the  estimate  placed  on  this  injustice,  the  greater  the  crime 
exposed.  But  even  the  nine  million,  eleven  million,  thir- 
teen million  dollar  estimates  sink  into  insignificance  when 
compared  with  the  estimate  of  Unpaid  Taxes. 

The  State  Board  of  Tax  Commissioners  in  annual  report 
for  1906,  stated  in  connection  with  unpaid  franchise  taxes : 
"  In  Greater  New  York  alone  these  unpaid  taxes  reach  the 
large  total  of  $18,476,585-54." 

The  World,  December  17,  1908:  "By  request  of  Gov. 
Hughes,  the  new  charter  commission  made  to  him  yester- 
day a  special  report  upon  city  finances.  After  showing 
that  the  city  on  Nov.  i,  was  within  $8,582,705  of  the  limit 
of  its  borrowing  capacity,  the  report  that  the  borrowing 
capacity  at  the  moment  is  so  limited  is  manifestly  due, 
among  other  things,  to  the  fact  of  the  city's  failure  to  col- 


i8o         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

lect  its  taxes  and  assessments.  There  was  due  the  city  on 
Nov.  I,  1908,  for  unpaid  taxes  and  assessments  for  the  year 
1906  and  prior  years,  the  following: — 

Real    Estate    Taxes,  , $  9,418,708 

Special    Franchise   Taxes,   , 17,964,830 

Personal  Property  Taxes,   32,346,528 

Assessments  (to  date)  about 26,000,000 


$85,730,066 


In  1909  Mr.  Ivins  wrote  Gov.  Hughes  that  New  York 
City  had  exceeded  its  debt  limit  by  more  than  $5,000,000. 
Gen.  Tracy,  as  referee,  fixed  the  debt  limit  at  106  millions 
and  upwards. 

OUR  TAXES   COMPARED  WITH   OTHERS 

That  our  taxes  are  not  abnormally  large  is  shown  by  the 
following  from  the  New  York  Evening  Post :  "  The  average 
annual  burden  (of  taxation)  on  the  head  of  every  Japa- 
nese family  amounts  to  1.5  of  his  average  income.  A  com- 
parison of  20%  in  Japan  is  made  with  England  9.9 ;  France 
12.2;  Germany  7.9;  America  3.2;  Italy  20.3;  Austria  20.6." 
Compare  an  annual  average  burden  of  taxation  on  the  head 
of  every  American  family  of  3.2  per  cent  with  England 
8.9;  France  12.2;  Germany  7.9;  Italy  20.3.  Many  Ameri- 
cans are  content  with  this  system  of  economy  that  to  a 
great  extent  results  in  the  over-crowding  of  school-rooms 
and  the  overwork  and  underpay  of  school  teachers." 

The  Globe,  of  October  18,  1907,  in  an  article  on  the 
meeting  of  the  State  Department  of  Superintendents  said: 
"  The  general  question  of  teachers'  salaries  was  discussed 
at  the  afternoon  session,  when  Supt.  R.  A.  Taylor,  of  Niag- 
ara Falls,  presented  the  results  of  his  investigations  as  to 
'  Prevailing  Methods  of  Grading  the  Salaries  of  Teachers.' 
It  wasi  something  of  a  surprise  to  those  present,  particularly 
the  people  from  New  York  City,  to  learn  that  New  York 
City  is  not  the  banner  salary  city.    It  devotes  only  .776  per 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         i8i 

cent  of  the  money  raised  by  taxation  to  teachers'  salaries, 
whereas  Mechanicsville  gives  .857,  Newburgh  .810  and 
Salamanca  and  Elmira  .780  each.  It  was  also  reported  that 
the  minimum  salary  in  a  number  of  the  small  cities  is  the 
same  or  higher  than  that  in  New  York  City.  Cities  regis- 
tering less  than  1000  students  devote  28  per  cent  of  their 
school  money  to  teachers'  salaries ;  those  having  from  2000 
to  3000  pupils  devote  63.3  per  cent ;  those  having  from  3000 
to  5000  devote  70.9  per  cent ;  those  over  5000, 67.3  per  cent. 
The  state  average  is  about  65  per  cent.* 

This  from  the  Eagle  of  March  18,  1910,  makes  us  hope 
that  something  will  be  left  for  us  next  time : 

The  comparative  statement  of  payrolls  prepared  by  Con- 
troller Prendergast  was  presented  to  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment  at  the  meeting  to-day.  The  months 
compared  were  December,  the  last  under  the  McClellan 
administration,  and  January  and  February,  the  first  two 
months  under  the  present  administration.  Mr.  Prender- 
gast's  figures  go  to  show  that  the  January  payroll  was 
$252,109.02  less  than  the  December  payroll,  and  the  Febru- 
ary payroll  compared  to  the  last  month  of  the  previous  ad- 
ministration shows  a  decrease  of  $552,409.62. 

As  I  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  we  started 
out  with  the  determination  that  we  would  do  nothing  to 
reduce  any  salary  fixed  by  the  Davis  Law,  but  the  male 
teacher  opposition  to  us  has  been  so  unfair  and  insulting 
that  now  we  are  prepared  to  insist  that  whatever  money 
is  allowed  by  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment 
for  teachers'  salaries  shall  be  divided  equitably,  i.e.,  if  the 
board  of  education  has  $1,500  for  the  hiring  of  two  teach- 
ers for  two  positions  exactly  the  same,  it  should  divide  it 

*  One  "  Taxpayer,"  wrote  to  the  Globe  that  if  the  White  bill  be- 
came law  he  expected  to  raise  every  one  of  his  tenants  from  $3 
to  $5  a  month.  As  one  correspondent  answered :  "  A  landlord 
like  that  doesn't  need  the  passage  of  a  *  White  Bill '  to  cause  him 
to  raise  your  rent.  He  would  do  it  if  he  found  a  little  fresh  air 
coming  into  your  apartment."  Said  correspondent  proceeded  to 
show  how  her  landlord  with  property  valued  at  $32,000  would  have 
to  pay  $32  more  if  one  mill  tax  were  added,  and  that  this  would 
mean  only  26S  cents  per  month  for  each  of  the  tenants. 


i82         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

into  $750  and  $750  instead  of  $600  and  $900 ;  and  if  it  has 
$6000  for  two  principals  of  the  same  kind  of  school,  it 
shall  divide  it  into  $3,000  and  $3,000,  instead  of  $3,500  and 
$2,500. 

Our  McCarren-Conklin  bills  of  1907  and  Gledhill-Foley 
bill  showed  we  are  ready  to  have  the  board  establish  a 
salary  for  a  principalship  of  a  boys'  school,  higher  than 
that  of  the  principalship  of  a  mixed  or  a  girls'  school ;  and 
for  a  mixed  school,  higher  than  that  of  a  girls'  school. 
Likewise,  as  to  assistants  to  principals  and  other  positions. 
Nor  do  we  look  for  an  obstacle  in  the  Davis  Law,  because 
if  Charter  Revision  does  not  soon  eliminate  the  objection- 
able features  of  that  law  we  are  prepared  to  test  its  con- 
stitutionality in  the  courts.  The  following  brief  shows  that 
steps  have  already  been  taken  along  this  line. 


CHAPTER   XV 

IS    THE    DAVIS    LAW     UNCONSTITUTIONAl? 

In  the  matter  of  the  AppHcation  of  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers  to  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion for  a  Revision  of  the  By-laws  of  the  Department 
of  Education  relative  to  the  salaries  of  men  and  women 
teachers. 


The  obligation  to  equalize  salaries  in  the  schools  is  legal 
as  well  as  moral. 

A  legal  as  well  as  a  moral  obligation  is  upon  the  Board 
of  Education  to  equalize  the  salaries  of  men  and  women  in 
the  School  system  of  New  York.  Section  1091  of  the  char- 
ter under  which  these  salaries  have  been  fixed  while  osten- 
sibly a  protective  bit  of  legislation  is  in  reality  discrimina- 
tory and  makes  a  distinction  between  the  men  and  the 
women  of  the  schools  based  solely  upon  sex  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  it  recites,  that  "  salaries  shall  be  regulated  by 
merit,  grade  of  class  taught,  length  of  service,  experience 
in  teaching,  or  by  a  combination  of  these  considerations." 
There  is  nothing  in  this  unctuous  introduction  to  indicate 
it  is  about  to  declare  that  a  man  teacher  after  a  certain 
number  of  years  of  service  shall  receive  a  salary  of  100  per 
cent  greater  than  a  woman  who  does  the  same  work. 

After  reciting  the  considerations  which  shall  regulate  the 
salaries  of  the  teaching  force  the  law  goes  on  to  establish 
different  minimum  rates  of  compensation  for  men  and 
women  in  the  same  positions,  and  the  difference  is  based 
upon  the  fact  of  sex  and  nothing  else. 

This  is  discriminatory  legislation  and  it  is  in  violation  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  State  of  New  York.    There  is  no  warrant  for 

183 


i84         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

such  discriminatory  legislation  and  there  is  abundant  reason 
for  declaring  it  null  and  void. 

The  14th  Amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  is  as 
follows : 

All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein  they  reside.  No 
state  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States;  nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  lib- 
erty or  property,  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to 
any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws. 

If  the  section  of  the  Charter  of  New  York,  under  which 
the  Board  of  Education  has  the  authority  to  make  by- 
laws regulating  salaries  is  protective  in  its  character,  it 
is  evident  that  it  does  not  give  the  men  and  the  women 
of  the  school  system  the  equal  protection  to  which  all 
persons,  all  citizens,  are  entitled  under  this  amendment. 
If  it  is  discriminatory,  as  the  women  teachers  know  it 
is,  then  it  is  in  direct  contravention  of  this  declaration. 
Section  1091  of  the  charter  is  either  protective  or  dis- 
criminatory. In  either  case  it  is  a  violation  of  the  great- 
est of  the  Constitutional  guarantees  added  to  the  organic 
law  after  the  Civil  War. 

The  right  to  equality  under  the  law  is  insured  to  the 
citizen  by  a  triple  guarantee.  These  are  the  fourteenth 
amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  and  Sections  i  and 
6  of  Article  i  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New 
York.    The  State  guarantees  are  as  follows: 

Section  i.  No  member  of  this  State  shall  be  disfran- 
chised, or  deprived  of  any  of  the  rights  or  privileges 
secured  to  any  citizen  thereof,  unless  by  the  law  of  the 
land,  or  the  judgment  of  his  peers. 

Section  6.  ...  No  person  .  .  .  shall  be  deprived 
of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law. 

As  briefly  as  is  consistent  with  the  magnitude  of  the 
subject  and  the  dignity  of  the  cause  we  shall  discuss  these 
guarantees  and  their  application  to  the  subject  of  Equal 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         185 

Pay  by  taking  them  up  in  inverse  order  and  ascertaining 
and  quoting  the  judicial  definitions  necessary  to  demon- 
strate that  the  Charter  provision  regulating  salaries  is  in 
direct  violation  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  (Article  i,  Section  6, 
Constitution  State  of  New  York)  and  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  nation  as  well. 

It  is  necessary  then  to  know  the  meaning  of  the  word 
liberty  as  set  forth  in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  phrases  "  due  process  of  law  "  and  "  Law  of 
the  Land  "  and  the  application  of  the  declaration  "  Equal 
Protection  of  the  Laws." 

In  the  People  v.  Marx  (99  N.  Y.,  386),  known  as  the 
Oleomargarine  case,  the  Court  of  Appeals  thus  declared 
the  broad  application  and  the  inviolability  of  the  Constitu- 
tional guarantees: 

.  .  .  The  Constitution  of  the  State  provides  (Art.  i, 
Sec.  i),  that  no  member  of  this  State  shall  be  disfran- 
chised or  deprived  of  any  of  the  rights  and  privileges 
secured  to  any  citizen  thereof,  unless  by  the  law  of  the 
land,  or  the  judgment  of  his  peers.  Section  6  of  Article  i 
provides  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty 
or  property,  without  due  process  of  law,  and  the  Four- 
teenth Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  provides  that  "  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any 
law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  nor  shall  any  State  deprive 
any  person  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due  proc- 
ess of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction 
the  equal  protection  of  the  laws."  These  constitutional 
safeguards  have  been  so  thoroughly  discussed  in  recent 
cases  tliat  it  would  be  superfluous  to  do  more  than  refer 
to  the  conclusions  which  have  been  reached,  bearing  upon 
the  question  now  under  consideration.  Among  these  no 
proposition  is  now  more  firmly  settled  than  that  it  is  one 
of  the  fundamental  rights  and  privileges  of  an  American 
citizen  to  adopt  and  follow  such  lawful  industrial  pursuit 
not  injurious  to  the  community  as  he  may  see  fit. 

(I  Abb.  U.  S.  398;  16  Wall.  106;  4  Wash.  C.  C.  380; 
98  N.  Y.  98.)     The  term  "liberty,"  as  protected  by  the 


i86         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

Constitution,  is  not  cramped  into  a  mere  freedom  from 
physical  restraint  of  the  person  of  the  citizen,  as  by  in- 
carceration, but  is  deemed  to  embrace  the  right  of  man 
to  be  free  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  facuhies  with  which 
he  has  been  endowed  by  his  creator,  subject  only  to  such 
restraints  as  are  necessary  for  the  common  welfare.  In  the 
language  of  Andrew,  J.,  in  Bertholf  v.  O'Reilly  (74  N.  Y. 
515),  the  right  to  liberty,  embraces  the  right  of  man  "to 
exercise  his  faculties  and  to  follow  a  lawful  avocation  for 
the  support  of  life,"  and  as  expressed  by  Earl,  J.  in  re 
Jacobs,  "one  may  be  deprived  of  his  liberty,  and  his  con- 
stitutional right  thereto  violated,  without  the  actual  re- 
straint of  his  person.  Liberty  in  its  broad  sense,  as  under- 
stood in  this  country,  means  the  right  not  only  of  freedom 
from  servitude,  imprisonment,  or  restraint,  but  the  right 
of  one  to  use  his  faculties  in  all  lawful  ways,  to  live  and 
work  when  he  will,  to  earn  his  livelihood  in  any  lawful 
calling,  and  to  pursue  any  lawful  trade  or  avocation." 

A  denial,  therefore,  of  the  equal  protection  of  the  law 
is  an  invasion  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  And  when 
that  denial  is  of  such  a  character  that  it  compels  one  citizen 
to  sell  product  or  service  to  the  government  for  less  than 
another,  it  amounts  to  a  serious  invasion  of  a  fundamental 
right,  which  cannot  be  excused  or  explained  by  the  asser- 
tion that  there  is  freedom  of  choice  as  long  as  there  is 
no  actual  physical  conscription.  The  fallacy  of  this  argu- 
ment is  illustrated  by  supposing  that  the  Metropolitan 
Street  Railway  Company  were  permitted  to  charge  dif- 
ferent rates  of  fares.  The  citizen  discriminated  against 
would  not  be  physically  seized  and  compelled  to  ride,  and 
would  at  all  times  have  the  right  to  walk,  but  he  would, 
nevertheless,  be  the  victim  of  an  unequal  and  uncon- 
stitutional law.  The  argument  that  women  have  the  right 
to  refuse  to  teach  at  the  present  salaries  is  beside  the 
question.  They  always  had  that  right  and  they  always 
will  have  it.  In  refusing  to  accept  employment  they  have 
equal  right  with  men.  In  preparing  for  their  work  as 
teachers  they  must  have  the  same  or  equivalent  qualifi- 
cations as  men.     In  this  they  are  equal,  too.     What  they 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         187 

want  now  is  equality  of  protection  under  the  law,  equality 
of  opportunity;  equality  of  pay. 

What  constitutes  the  law  of  the  land. 

It  may  be  urged  that  what  the  Legislature  has  decreed 
is  itself  the  "  Law  of  the  Land  "  or  "  Due  Process  of  Law." 
And  that,  therefore,  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  and  the 
inequitable  by-laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  enacted 
thereunder  are  valid.  Let  us  see  then  what  these  phrases 
mean. 

An  early  case  in  the  judicial  history  of  this  State  is 
that  of  Taylor  v.  Porter  (4  Hill,  145),  in  which  occurs 
this  definition: 

"  The  words  *  Law  of  the  Land,'  as  here  used,  do  not 
mean  a  statute  passed  for  the  purpose  of  working  the 
wrong.  That  construction  would  render  the  restriction 
absolutely  nugatory,  and  turn  this  part  of  the  constitu- 
tion into  mere  nonsense." 

In  People  v.  Toynbee  (20  Barb.,  169),  it  was  held: 

By  "  the  law  of  the  land  "  is  meant  a  proceed- 
ing according  to  the  course  of  the  common  law ;  a  trial 
and  judicial  sentence,  and  not  merely  a  statute  passed  for 
accomplishing  the  wrong.  .  .  .  The  power  of  the  Leg- 
islature in  the  enactment  of  laws  (whatever  it  may  be  in 
other  countries),  is  not  unhmited  in  this;  but  is  restricted 
both  by  the  written  constitution,  and  by  the  generally  re- 
ceived principles  of  practice  and  right. 


II. 

Legislation  dealing  with  persons  similarly  situated  must 
treat  them  alike. 

It  is  not  denied  that  the  Legislature  had  the  power  to 
authorize  the  Board  of  Education  to  fix  salary  schedules  as 
it  saw  fit,  provided  these  schedules  applied  equally  to  every 
teacher  eligible  for  a  given  position  in  the  School  De- 
partment.    It  had  the  power  and  the  right  to  deal  with 


i88         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

the  teachers  as  a  class.  It  had  the  power  to  enact  liberal 
or  penurious  laws  as  it  saw  fit.  But  after  it  set  the 
teachers  apart  for  special  legislation  it  had  neither  the 
power  nor  the  right  to  authorize  a  special  classification 
within  the  general  classification.  A  law  relating  to  a  class 
which  affects  members  of  that  class  unequally,  whether  as 
to  privileges  or  penalties,  is  necessarily  in  violation  of  the 
guarantee  that  every  citizen  shall  have  the  equal  protection 
of  the  law. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  any  citizen,  even  a  school  teacher 
has  a  natural  or  inherent  right  to  public  employment,  or 
that  the  city  has  not  the  right  to  refuse  his  services  for 
reasons  which  may  seem  sufficient  to  the  representatives  of 
the  Department  of  Education.  But  it  is  asserted  that  when 
the  city  sets  up  a  standard  of  eligibility  and  declares  all 
who  have  measured  up  to  it  successfully  are  fit  and  cap- 
able, it  has  not  the  right  to  make  arbitrary  distinctions 
between  those  whom  it  employs  for  the  same  work.  If  the 
teachers  are  worthy  of  their  hire,  it  is  because  they  have 
proved  themselves  qualified  for  the  work  and  have  done 
it  acceptably.  If  a  man  teacher  is  worthy  of  his  hire  it 
is  because  he  has  done  his  work  well  and  not  because  he 
is  a  man.  A  similar  rule  applies  to  the  woman  teacher. 
Merit,  grade  of  class  taught,  length  of  service,  experience 
in  teaching,  or  a  combination  of  these  considerations  should 
regulate  compensation,  as  the  Charter  says  they  shall, 
though  it  does  not  follow  these  brave  words. 

Ill 

Laws  relating  to  persons  similarly  circwnstanced  which 
affect  them  unequally  are  a  violation  of  the  guarantee  of 
civil  rights. 

The  Hon.  Archibald  R.  Watson,  Corporation  Counsel  of 
New  York,  and  one  of  the  most  erudite  law  writers  in  this 
country,  has  discussed  the  subject  of  "  Civil  Rights "  in 
Vol.  VI  of  the  American  and  English  Encyclopedia  of 
Law,  in  an  essay  noteworthy  for  clear  reasoning  and  well- 
considered  conclusions.    Here  are  three  of  them: 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        189 

"  Under  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  discriminating  or 
partial  legislation  favoring  or  discriminating  against  par- 
ticular persons  or  classes,  or  particular  persons  of  the  same 
class,  is  prohibited.^  And,  it  has  been  said,  equality  of 
protection  implies  not  only  equal  accessibility  to  the  courts 
for  the  prevention  or  redress  of  wrongs  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  rights;  but  equal  exemption  with  others  of  the 
same  class  from  charges  or  burdens  of  every  kind*   (p. 

78)." 

**  Though  a  law  be  not  discriminating  in  terms,  yet  if  it 
is  applied  and  administered  by  public  authority  so  as  prac- 
tically to  make  unjust  discriminations  between  persons 
similarly  circumstnnced  in  law,  in  matters  affecting  their 
substantial  right?,  the  law  will  be  held  invalid  as  being,  in 
operation,  such  a  denial  of  equal  protection  as  is  within  the 
prohibition  of  the  Constitution^  (p.  79)." 

"  It  is  immaterial,  therefore,  that  legislation  is  general 
in  terms,  and  that  the  persons  at  whom  it  is  directed  are 
not  particularly  designated.  If  the  intent  of  the  law  was 
that  it  should  affect  a  certain  class  with  unequal  harshness, 
which  object  is  accomplished  in  its  operation,  the  law  con- 
travenes the  equal  protection  clause  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  and  is  void."' " 

Let  us  see  what  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
has  said  in  upholding  the  principles  set  out  by  Mr.  Watson, 
that  whenever  there  is  class  legislation,  every  member  of 
that  class  shall  be  treated  alike. 

In  Hayes  v.  Missouri  (120  U.  S.,  68;  30  L.  E.,  578)  it 
declared : 

"  The  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  does  not  prohibit  legislation  which  is  limited 
either  in  the  objects  to  which  it  is  directed  or  by  the  terri- 
tory within  which  it  is  to  operate.  It  merely  requires  that 
all  persons  subjected  to  such  legislation  shall  be  treated 
alike,  under  all  circumstances  and  conditions,  both  in  the 
privileges  conferred  and  in  the  liabilities  imposed." 

And  in  Barbier  v.  Connolly  (113  U.  S.,  27;  28  L.  E., 
923)  it  had  already  said: 

"  Class  legislation,  discriminating  against  some  and  fav- 


190         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

oring  others,  is  prohibited,  but  legislation  which,  in  carry- 
ing out  a  public  purpose,  is  limited  in  its  application,  if 
within  the  sphere  of  its  operation  it  affects  alike  all  per- 
sons similarly  situated,  is  not  within  the  amendment." 

Throughout  these  decisions,  both  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  this 
State,  it  is  repeated  over  and  over  again  that  classifications 
are  legal  only  when  every  person  similarly  circumstanced 
is  treated  alike.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  words  person 
and  citizen  are  used,  that  no  distinction  is  made  because  of 
sex.  In  the  case  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railroad  v.  Mac- 
key  (127  U.  S.,  205;  32  L.  Ed.,  109)  the  Court  repeated, 
Justice  Field  writing : 

"  And  when  legislation  applies  to  particular  bodies  or 
associations,  imposing  upon  them  additional  liabilities,  it 
is  not  open  to  the  objection  that  it  denies  to  them  the  equal 
protection  of  the  laws,  if  all  persons  brought  under  its  in- 
fluence are  treated  alike  under  the  same  conditions. 

"  .  .  .  Such  legislation  is  not  obnoxious  to  the  last 
clause  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  if  all  persons  sub- 
ject to  it  are  treated  alike  under  similar  circumstances  and 
conditions  in  respect  both  of  the  privileges  conferred  and 
the  liabilities  imposed." 

Coming  down  to  a  later  day.  Justice  Brewer,  in  Cotting 
V.  Goddard  (183  U.  S.,  79),  wrote  for  the  same  Court: 

"  But  while  recognizing  to  the  full  extent  the  impossi- 
bility of  an  imposition  of  duties  and  obligations  mathe- 
matically equal  upon  all,  and  also  recognizing  the  right  to 
classification  of  industries  and  occupations,  we  must  never- 
theless always  remember  that  the  equal  protection  of  the 
law  is  guaranteed,  and  that  such  equal  protection  is  denied 
ivhen  upon  one  of  two  parties  engaged  in  the  same  kind  of 
business  and  under  the  same  conditions  burdens  are  cast 
which  are  not  cast  upon  the  other." 

To  the  same  purpose  was  the  eloquent  decision  of  Justice 
Brewer  in  Gulf,  C.  L.  S.  F.  R.  Co.  v.  Ellis  (165  U.  S.,  150; 
41  L.  Ed.,  666).    In  this  case  the  Court  said: 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        191 

"While  as  a  general  proposition  this  is  undeniably  true, 
yet  it  is  equally  true  that  such  classification  cannot  be  made 
arbitrarily.  The  State  may  not  say  that  all  white  men  shall 
be  subjected  to  the  payment  of  the  attorneys'  fees  of  par- 
ties successfully  suing  them,  and  all  black  men  not.  It  may 
not  say  that  all  men  beyond  a  certain  age  shall  be  alone 
thus  subjected,  or  all  men  possessed  of  certain  wealth. 
These  are  distinctions  which  do  not  furnish  any  proper 
basis  for  the  attempted  classification.  That  must  always 
rest  upon  some  difference  which  bears  a  reasonable  and 
just  relation  to  the  act  in  respect  to  which  the  classification 
is  proposed,  and  can  never  be  made  arbitrarily  and  without 
any  such  basis.  .  .  .  The  first  official  action  of  this 
nation  declares  the  foundation  of  government  in  the  words : 
'  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights,  that  among  these  are  life,  lib- 
erty and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  While  such  declarations 
of  principles  may  not  have  the  force  of  organic  law,  or  be 
made  the  basis  of  judicial  decisions  as  to  the  limits  of 
rights  and  duty,  and  while  in  all  cases  reference  must  be 
had  to  the  organic  law  of  the  nation  for  such  limits,  yet 
the  latter  is  but  the  body  and  the  letter  of  which  the  former 
is  the  thought  and  the  spirit,  and  it  is  always  safe  to  read 
the  letter  of  the  Constitution  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  No  duty  rests  more  imperatively 
upon  the  courts  than  the  enforcement  of  the  Constitutional 
provisions  intended  to  secure  the  equality  of  rights  which 
is  the  foundation  of  free  government.     .     .     .  " 


IV 

Arbitrary  and  fanciful  classifications  and  discriminating 
legislation  affecting  persons  of  the  same  class  unequally  are 
condemned  by  the  Courts. 

Numerous  decisions  in  the  Federal  and  the  State  Courts 
hold  that  legislation  applying  to  well  defined  classes  of  per- 
sons is  constitutional  provided  there  is  valid  reason  for  the 


192         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

classification  and  every  one  in  a  given  class  is  equally  sub- 
ject thereto.  In  legislating  for  the  teachers  of  New  York 
it  was  impossible  to  discriminate  between  men  and  women 
teachers  in  respect  to  salaries  without  producing  an  inequit- 
able and  unequal  situation.  The  Legislature  enacted  a  law 
for  the  protection  of  the  teachers  of  New  York.  This  it 
had  a  right  to  do  and  its  legislation  would  be  beyond  criti- 
cism on  Constitutional  grounds  if  it  dealt  equally  with  all 
teachers  similarly  situated,  similarly  circumstanced.  The 
law  knows  no  distinction  of  persons,  and  this  salutary  rule 
must  be  kept  in  mind.  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  and  the 
By-Laws  enacted  under  it  show  a  sharp  distinction  between 
persons  as  such.  They  distinguish  between  teachers  oc- 
cupying the  same  position  in  the  matter  of  salary.  They 
provide  that  a  man  occupying  a  given  position  shall  have 
50  per  cent,  more  than  a  woman  at  the  beginning  of  service 
and  that  after  a  certain  number  of  years  he  shall  have  100 
per  cent.  more.  This  is  a  distinction  between  members  of 
the  same  class  not  contemplated  by  the  Constitution  and 
not  tolerated  by  the  laws  of  New  York  in  regard  to  any 
other  public  servants  appointed  under  the  merit  system. 

Confusion  is  caused  in  considering  this  question  by  the 
fact  that  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York  and 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  interpreted  by  the 
courts  permits  classification,  so  long  as  the  individuals  in 
a  given  class  are  subjected  to  the  same  treatment.  Of 
course  this  rule  has  sharp  and  well  defined  limitations. 
There  can  be  no  arbitrary  or  fanciful  classifications.  Legis- 
lation which  applied  solely  to  redhaired  persons  would  not 
be  Constitutional.  Legislation  providing  diflferent  schools 
for  white  and  colored  children  would  not  be  constitutional 
unless  the  schools  were  made  just  as  good  for  the  children 
of  one  race  as  for  the  children  of  the  other.  Women  law- 
yers would  upset  a  law  providing  that  their  costs  in  lawsuits 
should  be  50  per  cent,  of  the  costs  collected  by  men  law- 
yers and  they  would  do  so  under  these  clauses  of  the  funda- 
mental law  providing  for  equality  of  all  citizens  before  the 
law.  A  law  which  should  prescribe  that  women  physicians 
should  be  paid  half  the  fees  paid  men  physicians  would  not 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         193 

be  constitutional.  And  such  a  law  would  be  upset  even  if 
it  were  couched  in  the  specious  and  apparently  protective 
phraseology  of  Section  1091  of  the  Charter.  The  Courts 
would  hold  it  a  limitation  upon  their  earnings,  and  intended 
as  such,  no  matter  what  the  wording  might  be. 

When  the  Legislature  passed  the  Law  now  forming  Sec- 
tion 109 1  of  the  Charter  it  was  legislating  on  behalf  of  the 
teachers  of  New  York  as  a  class.  The  statute  so  far  as  it 
increased  the  salaries  of  the  teaching  force  by  providing 
minimum  amounts  that  should  be  paid  by  the  Board  of 
Education  was  a  distinct  step  in  advance,  but  so  far  as  it 
permitted  discrimination  against  women  teachers,  it  was  a 
distinct  retrogression,  and  the  fact  was  pointed  out  by 
Governor  Roosevelt  who  signed  the  bill.  It  was  an  espe- 
cially retrogressive  measure  so  far  as  the  teachers  of  Brook- 
lyn were  concerned  for  they  had  equal  pay  before  consoli- 
dation and  this  law  took  it  away  from  them. 

A  rule  of  equal  treatment  of  pupils  in  the  public  schools 
was  enunciated  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  case  of  Peo- 
ple et  ret.  Gallagher  v.  King  (93  N.  Y.  448),  in  which  it 
was  said: 


"The  design  of  the  common  school  system  of  this  State 
is  to  instruct  the  citizen,  and  where,  for  this  purpose,  they 
have  placed  within  his  reach  means  of  acquiring  an  educa- 
tion with  other  persons,  they  have  discharged  their  duty 
to  him  and  he  has  received  all  that  he  is  entitled  to  ask  of 
the  government  with  respect  to  such  privilege." 

This  case  arose  from  the  establishment  of  separate  schools 
for  colored  pupils  in  Brooklyn.  It  holds  that  the  benefits 
of  the  public  school  system  must  be  offered  equally  to  all 
pupils.  Is  it  conceivable  that  a  rule  of  equality  applying 
to  the  pupils  may  be  legally  denied  to  the  teachers.  The 
law  declares  that  there  must  be  practical  equality  of  effi- 
ciency between  schools  in  the  same  grade.  If  the  inequality 
of  salaries  is  excused  by  saying  that  men  are  better  teachers 
than  women,  how  can  the  equal  efficiency  of  these  schools 


194         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

be  maintained  when  changes  and  transfers  take  place  in  the 
teaching  force  from  time  to  time? 


Recent  statutes  and  decisions  in  this  state  indicate  that 
the  Legislature  and  the  Courts  regard  men  and  women  as 
equal  before  the  law. 

Significant  legislation  and  significant  decisions  have  been 
enacted  and  written  in  this  State  recently  regarding  the 
equality  of  men  and  women  before  the  law.  The  Domestic 
Relations  Law  (Chapter  19,  L.  of  1909)  makes  the  rights 
and  the  liabilities  of  husband  and  wife  equal  and  re-enacts 
the  law  that  a  married  woman  and  an  unmarried  woman 
shall  have  the  same  contractural  business  and  property 
rights.  The  legislation  of  this  State  declares  equality,  of 
the  civil  rights  of  men  and  women  generally.  Section  1091 
of  the  Charter  of  New  York  is  the  only  hit  of  legislation  in 
which  the  principle  of  equality  is  ignored. 

In  sustaining  equality  of  the  contractural  rights  of  men 
and  women,  Justice  Gray  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  writing 
for  that  tribunal  in  People  v.  Williams  (189  N.  Y.  131) 
in  which  a  law  preventing  women  from  working  in  fac- 
tories at  night  was  declared  unconstitutional,  made  these 
sweeping  declarations: 

"  The  fundamental  law  of  the  State,  as  embodied  in  its 
Constitution,  provides  that  'no  person  shall  *  *  *  be 
deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law.'  (Art,  i,  Sec.  6.)  The  provisions  of  the  State 
and  of  the  Federal  Constitutions  protect  every  citizen  in 
the  right  to  pursue  any  lawful  employment  in  a  lawful 
manner.  He  enjoys  the  utmost  freedom  to  follow  his 
chosen  pursuit  and  any  arbitrary  distinction  against,  or 
deprivation  of,  that  freedom  by  the  legislature  is  an  in- 
vasion of  the  constitutional  guaranty.  Under  our  laws  men 
and  women  now  stand  alike  in  their  constitutional  rights 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         195 

and  there  is  no  warrant  for  making  any  discrimination  be- 
tween them  with  respect  to  the  liberty  of  person,  or  of  con- 
tract. *  *  *  It  is  clear,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  this 
legislation  cannot,  and  should  not,  be  upheld  as  a  proper 
exercise  of  the  police  power.  It  is,  certainly,  discriminative 
against  female  citizens,  in  denying  to  them  equal  rights 
with  men  in  the  same  pursuit.     *     *     * 

"An  adult  female  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  ward  of 
the  state,  or  in  any  other  light  than  the  man  is  regarded, 
when  the  question  relates  to  the  business  pursuit  or  calling. 
She  is  no  more  a  ward  of  the  state  than  is  the  man.  She 
is  entitled  to  enjoy,  unmolested,  her  liberty  of  person,  and 
her  freedom  to  work  for  whom  she  pleases,  where  she 
pleases  and  as  long  as  she  pleases,  within  the  general  limits 
operative  on  all  persons  alike,    *     *     * 

"  So  I  think,  in  this  case,  that  we  should  say,  as  an  adult 
female  is  in  no  sense  a  ward  of  the  state,  that  she  is  not 
to  be  made  the  special  object  of  the  exercise  of  the  paternal 
power  of  the  state  and  that  the  restriction  here  imposed 
upon  her  privilege  to  labor,  violates  the  constitutional 
guarantees.  In  the  gradual  course  of  legislation  upon  the 
rights  of  a  woman,  in  this  state,  she  has  come  to  possess  all 
of  the  responsibilities  of  the  man  and  she  is  entitled  to  be 
placed  upon  an  equality  of  rights  with  the  man." 

And  this  opinion  had  the  concurrence  of  the  entire  court 
with  the  exception  of  Justice  Cullen,  who  was  absent. 

No  extended  argument  is  necessary  to  demonstrate  where 
the  Legislature  stands  in  regard  to  this  question  of  "  Equal 
Pay."  Its  action  at  three  successive  sessions  indicates  how 
it  now  regards  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  and  the  By- 
Laws  enacted  thereunder.  The  Legislature  is  willing  to 
right  the  wrong  it  sanctioned,  and  the  highest  Court  of  the 
State  has  indicated  that  it  will  favor  neither  special  privi- 
leges nor  special  disabilities  for  women  whatever  their 
walk  of  life.  The  duty  of  the  Board  of  Education  is  as 
apparent  as  its  power  is  ample. 

The  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  have  in  gen- 


196         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

eral  used  the  minimum  salaries  prescribed  by  tlie  Charter 
as  the  maximum  salaries  of  the  school  system.  The  Board 
of  Education,  is  not  prevented  by  the  Charter  from  making 
schedules  that  are  just  and  equitable.  It  has  abundant 
authority  both  in  natural  justice  and  the  fixed  Law  of  the 
Land. 

Charles  F.  Kingsley, 

Attorney-at-Law. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

GLARING    INEQUALITIES    AND    INCONSISTENCIES 

Principals  of  Elementary  Schools 
Maximum  Women     .     $2500        Men     .     $3500 

Grade  Teachers 

Women —  ist  Year. . .  .$  600    Men —  ist  Year. . .  .$  900 

7th   Year $840        "        7th   Year $1633 

I2th  Year $1080        "      12th  Year $2160 

A  man  gets  first  year  same  as  woman  eighth  year. 

Woman    Teacher's    Annual    Increase,    $40.00.     Man's, 
$105.00. 

Secondary  Schools 

Women.  .$  936.00  Men.  .$1500.00 

Maximum        "      .  .$1440.00        Maximum   "    .  .$2400.00 

Graduating-Class  Teachers 

(Sth  Grade) 

Women $84.00  Men $150.00 

High  Schools 

Men  Principals $5,ooo.  No  Women. 

1st.  Assts.  Maximum — Women.  .$2500    Men.  .$3000 

Assistants  "  "       ..$1900       "    ..$2400 

Junior  Teachers         "  "      .  .$1000       "    .  .$1200 

District  Superintendent — $5,000.    21  Men — 3  Women 

Woman  Principal — 72  Classes — 3,200  Pupils — Salary  $2500 
Man  Principal      — 12  Classes —   480  Pupils — Salary  $3500 

197 


198         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  woman  assistant  to  principal  (she  must  have  a  special 
license)  will  receive  in  the  eleventh  year  $1,600;  a  man 
teacher  in  school  supervised  by  this  assistant  receives 
$2,400,  or  $2,160.  That  is,  though  not  eligible  to  position 
held  by  the  woman,  he  may  receive  fifty  per  cent,  more 
salary. 

A  man  teaching  in  lowest  schedule  receives  in  his  sixth 
year  a  salary  higher  than  that  paid  a  woman  who  is  head  of 
a  department  in  her  ninth  year. 

A  woman  must  be  teaching  boys  and  in  her  seventh  year 
of  experience  before  she  receives  the  salary  a  man  has 
from  the  very  beginning. 

A  man  teaching  a  graduating  class  is  receiving  $650 
more  than  a  woman  principal  of  a  school,  say  of  "^y  classes, 
when  both  are  in  their  eleventh  year  of  service.  Her  maxi- 
mum finally  is  only  $100  more  than  his. 

A  woman  principal  never  receives,  no  matter  how  large 
her  school,  no  matter  how  excellent  her  record,  as  much 
as  a  man  principal  in  his  £rst  year. 

We  could  cite  case  after  case  of  a  woman  principal  in 
charge  of  a  school  of  from  40  to  77  classes  receiving  $1,000 
a  year  less  than  a  man  principal  in  charge  of  a  school  of 
from  12  to  40  classes. 

Assistants  to  Principals  or  Heads  of  Departments,  SB 

Grade 

Years  of  experience.  Women.  Men. 

9    $1400  $2,100 

10 1,500  2,250 

II    1,600  2,400 

A  woman  may  supervise  a  department  in  which  there 
are  men  teaching  grades  receiving  salaries  50  per  cent, 
higher  than  hers.  Yet  (i)  the  man,  not  having  Head  of 
Department  license,  is  not  eligible  to  the  position  the  woman 
holds;  (2)  a  man  in  the  lowest  grade,  holding  lowest  li- 
cense, is  receiving  in  his  sixth  year  $1,425 — a  salary  higher 
than  that  of  a  woman  Head  of  Department  in  her  ninth 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         199 

year  of  service.  These  women  often  have  charge  of  25 
classes,  with  the  responsibilities  of  training  the  teachers, 
disciplining  the  pupils,  making  laborious  reports,  interview- 
ing parents,  and  so  on. 

Men 
Years  of  Principals.  in  Grades    Men  in 

Experience.  Women.  Men.         below  8B.  Grade  8B. 

11  $1,750    $2,750    $1,950    $2,400 

12  2,000      3,000      2,055      2,400 

13   2,250       3,250        2,160        2,400 

14    2,500         3,500         2,160         2,400 

It  will  be  seen  that  women,  after  serving  the  required 
ten  years  satisfactorily,  passing  the  very  difficult  examina- 
tion for  a  principals'  license,  and  securing  a  position  as 
principal  (usually  after  weary  waiting),  (i)  receives  in  her 
first  and  second  years  as  principal  a  lower  salary  than  a 
man  who  may  be  in  even  the  lowest  grade  (see  schedule 
VI.)  ;  (2)  serves  three  years  as  principal  at  a  lower  salary 
than  a  man  in  the  8B  is  receiving  when  the  by-laws  permit 
her  to  begin  service  as  principal;  (3)  never  receives,  no 
matter  what  her  experience,  the  salary  a  man  receives  in 
his  first  year  as  principal ;  (4)  never  receives  a  salary  more 
than  $100  in  excess  of  that  received  by  a  man  in  the  8B 
grade  having  ten  years'  experience,  and  not  having  either 
the  license  for  or  the  responsibility  involved  in  her  position. 

In  a  recent  circular  issued  by  the  Association  of  Men 
Principals  and  Teachers,  the  statement  is  made  that 
"  Women  teachers  should  note  with  interest  that  a  *  com- 
plete, accurate  and  scientific  statement  of  the  increased  cost 
of  living '  proves  that  *  every  dollar  you  receive  in  salary 
now  will  buy  not  more  than  what  80c.  would  have  bought 
in  1899.' " 

It  has  not  been  necessary  for  the  women  teachers  to  make 
any  scientific  inquiry  to  find  out  that  at  all  times  and  at  any 
time  since   1899: 

(a)  In  her  13th  year  of  service  in  grades  below  the  7A, 
the  woman  teacher  has  been  receiving  only  50  to  73^  cents 


200         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

for  every  dollar  paid  to  the  male  teacher  of  same  grade  and 
experience ; 

(b)  The  woman  assistant  to  principal  has  been  receiving 
only  66f  cents  for  every  dollar  paid  the  male  assistant  to 
principal ; 

(c)  The  woman  principal  has  been  receiving  only  from 
63  to  71  cents  on  every  dollar  paid  the  male  principal ; 

(d)  The  woman  teacher  of  a  graduating  class  of  boys 
has  been  receiving  from  62  to  64  cents  for  every  dollar  paid 
to  the  male  teacher  of  same  grade  and  experience. 

Not  long  ago,  acting  in  my  capacity  as  District  Superin- 
tendent of  Schools,  I  examined  Mr.  B.,  who  was  nearing 
the  end  of  his  third  year  of  teaching,  and  so  had  to  be 
passed  upon  as  to  his  fitness  for  a  permanent  license.  I 
found  his  work  generally  unsatisfactory,  and  I  could  not 
recommend  that  his  license  be  made  permanent.  Yet  he 
was  receiving  fifty  per  cent,  more  salary  than  Miss  B.,  who 
was  appointed  at  the  same  time  as  he  was  and  assigned  to 
the  same  kind  of  class.  In  fact,  Miss  B.  would  have  to 
teach  eleven  years  to  get  as  much  as  he  was  receiving. 
Furthermore,  she  would  need  to  have  passed  the  examina- 
tion for  a  permanent  license  at  the  end  of  her  third  year, 
and  the  examination  as  to  fitness  and  merit  at  the  end  of  her 
seventh  year  of  service. 

Is  not  such  a  state  of  aflfairs  bad  for  Mr.  B.  as  well  as 
unjust  to  Miss  B.,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  community? 

Mayor  McClellan,  in  his  letter,  read  at  our  Carnegie 
Mass  Meeting,  said : 

"  For  the  teaching  of  little  children  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that  women  are  far  superior  to  men,  and  that 
they  are  therefore  entitled  to  a  higher  rate  of  compensa- 
tion." 

In  his  Ninth  Annual  Report,  Superintendent  Maxwell 
said:  "Experience  has  doubtless  shown  that  women 
teachers  teach  younger  pupils,  boys  as  well  as  girls,  better 
than  men." 

Yet  the  men  teaching  these  very  "  younger  pupils  "  are 
paid  from  50  to  100  per  cent,  more  salary  than  the  women 
who  teach  them  "  better." 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        201 


Glaring  Inconsistencies  in  the  Attitudes  of  Our  Opponents 

The  cry  that  the  salaries  of  men  teachers  will  be  re- 
duced— yet. 

The  cry  that  "  Equal  Pay "  will  cost  nine  to  thirteen 
million  dollars. 

The  cry  that  "  Equal  Pay  "  will  drive  men  out,  and  again 

The  cry  that  "  Equal  Pay  "  will  drive  women  out. 

The  cry  that  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  bills  are  mandatory — yet 

The  cry  for  the  retention  of  the  Davis  Law. 

The  statement  that  women  are  superior  to  men  as 
teachers  of  young  children,  yet 

The  demand  for  the  Davis  Law  which  pays  men  from  50 
to  100  per  cent,  more  than  women  in  the  primary  grades. 

The  statement  that  men  must  be  offered  a  higher  salary 
than  women  in  order  to  get  "  men  of  the  proper  calibre," 
yet 

The  fact  that  hundreds  of  men  now  in  the  system  are  the 
same  men  that  were  engaged  in  Brooklyn  on  "  Equal  Pay  " 
salaries.  Among  them  are  the  City  Superintendent,  three 
Associate  Superintendents,  six  District  Superintendents, 
four  High  School  principals,  and  numerous  elementary 
school  principals.  Now  young  men  are  appointed  direct 
from  City  College. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE   WHITE    BILL    OF    I907 

It  is  painfully  significant  that  the  majority  of  the  argu- 
ments advanced  by  the  opponents  of  this  bill,  when  they 
get  down  to  the  question  of  feasibility,  are  based  upon  a 
profound  distrust  of  the  Board  of  Education.  It  seems  to 
be  taken  for  granted  that  wherever  the  law  leaves  a  loop- 
hole for  the  Board  of  Education  to  wiggle  away  from  its 
mandate  and  do  the  wrong  thing,  prompt  advantage  will 
be  taken  thereof.  The  brief  of  the  Men  teachers  and  Prin- 
cipals amounts  to  a  petition  to  the  Legislature  not  to  pass 
the  White  bill,  because  they  will  be  turned  over  to  the 
tender  mercies  of  the  Board  of  Education.  The  pleas  put 
forward  by  Mr.  Stern  in  behalf  of  the  primary  teachers 
is  in  effect  a  prophecy  that  they  will  fare  badly  at  the 
hands  of  the  Board  of  Education,  because  the  Legislature 
has  not  specifically  stated  all  that  may  be  done  for  them. 
Mrs.  Leveridge,  who  appeared  before  the  Assembly  Cities 
Committee  in  opposition  to  the  bill,  made  an  argument 
amounting  to  an  attack  upon  the  Board  of  Education,  which 
she  feared  would  discriminate  against  the  primary  teachers. 
Miss  Davidson  and  Miss  Reardon  both  evidenced  such  fear 
of  the  Board  of  Education  that  they  are  willing  to  continue 
working  under  the  unjust  and  inadequate  schedules  of  the 
Davis  law  rather  than  be  left  to  the  "  discretion  of  the 
Board  of  Education,"  with  a  prospect  of  a  share  in  the 
proceeds  of  the  "  extra  mill."  Miss  Davidson  was  so  ex- 
cited about  this  taking  from  her  "  the  only  safeguard  and 
protection  given  me  by  a  State  Law  "  that  she  added  586 
to  565  and  made  a  total  of  eleven  thousand  and  fifty-one 
as  the  number  of  "  primary  teachers  "  opposed  to  the  White 
bill.  Incidentally  I  know  that  many  of  these  protestants 
are  men  below  the  7  A  Grade. 

203 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        203 

In  a  statement  made  by  the  Senate  Committee  which  re- 
ported this  bill  through  Senator  White,  appears  some  com- 
ment upon  the  course  of  the  Board  of  Education  in  not 
heeding  the  petition  of  the  women  teachers  for  justice.  It 
is  easy  to  see  that  these  men  accepted  with  some  reluctance 
the  conviction  that  the  Board  of  Education  had  not  done 
its  duty  in  this  matter  and  that  they  proceeded  only  after 
a  careful  examination  of  the  situation.  Bygones  should 
be  bygones.  The  slate  has  been  wiped  clean  and  the  Board 
of  Education  is  now  free  to  go  ahead  and  discharge  the 
responsibility  put  upon  it  by  this  bill,  sure  of  the  loyal  co- 
operation of  those  who  have  urged  its  enactment,  sure  that 
the  only  suspicion  breathed  against  it  comes  from  the  men 
who  are  opposing  the  White  bill. 

NO    POLITICS    IN    THIS    BILL 

There  is  no  politics  in  this  bill.  An  examination  of  the 
entire  work  of  the  Legislature  would  reveal  no  measure  so 
free  from  politics  as  this  one.  Senators  and  Assemblymen 
without  distinction  of  party  supported  it.  They  agreed 
that  it  was  right  in  principle  and  they  had  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  they  were  glad  to  support  it  when  they  learned 
positively,  after  consultation  with  the  members  from  the 
counties  composing  Greater  New  York  that  it  did  not  vio- 
late the  principle  of  Home  Rule.  Certainly  these  members 
of  the  Legislature  were  justified  in  the  conclusion  that  they 
were  endorsing  the  principle  of  Home  Rule  when  they 
realized  that  practically  the  entire  legislative  delegation 
from  Greater  New  York  favored  the  bill.  And  they  were 
right.  It  is  inconceivable  that  any  bill  violating  the  prin- 
ciple of  Home  Rule  could  have  practically  the  unanimous 
support  of  the  delegation  from  this  city  without  regard  to 
party,  without  stimulating  some  observant  lawmaker  to  a 
political  argument  against  it.  There  is  no  politics  in  this 
measure.  There  can  be  no  politics  in  it.  Legislation  so 
just  that  it  appeals  to  the  sense  of  fairness  of  members  of 
both  parties  so  strongly  that  they  refuse  to  entertain  the 
thought  of  attempting  to  make  political  capital  out  of  it. 


204         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

requires  no  defense  against  such  a  charge.  It  would  be  as 
sane  to  assert  that  the  unanimous  vote  by  which  Congress 
declared  war  against  Spain  was  tainted  with  politics.  The 
passage  of  this  bill  by  the  Legislature  marked  one  of  those 
occasions  in  the  life  of  the  State  when  the  lawmakers  said, 
"  It's  just.  It's  right.  Why  have  these  women  delayed  so 
long  in  asking  for  justice?  Let  us  do  all  that  we  can 
to  right  the  wrong,  without  quibbling,  without  pettiness. 
Let  us  do  our  part  to  right  the  wrong." 

The  same  reasons  which  actuated  the  Legislature  to  pass 
this  bill  ought  to  secure  its  endorsement  by  the  Mayor  of 
New  York.  Better  than  any  member  of  the  Legislature 
is  he  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  the  women  of  the  schools 
have  been  unfairly  treated.  More  than  any  member  of  the 
Legislature  is  he  responsible  to  these  women  who  now 
appeal  for  justice.  He  is  the  first  citizen  of  the  community 
where  the  wrong  has  been  tolerated ;  and  now  under  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  it  becomes  his  duty  to  pass  upon 
their  petition,  a  petition  which  the  Legislature  has  stamped 
with  its  approval  with  practical  unanimity.  As  Mayor  of 
New  York  and  a  fellow-citizen  of  these  women,  he  is  more 
completely  their  representative  than  any  member  of  the 
Legislature  can  be.  They  have  asked  the  Legislature  to 
clothe  him  with  power  to  give  them  the  justice  they  seek. 
The  Legislature  has  done  its  part.  An  army  of  13,000 
women,  without  one  exception,  believe  that  he  will  do 
his. 

The  brief  submitted  by  the  President  of  the  Interborough 
to  Mayor  McClellan  urging  his  approval  of  the  White  bill, 
contained  the  following: 

"  Those  who  approve  the  bill  beg  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  to 
consider  this  bill  not  as  you  would  original  mandatory 
legislation  over  which  you  had  no  control ;  and  further- 
more, as  an  amendment  which  restores  in  large  measure 
powers  taken  from  the  City  seven  years  ago.  Viewed  in 
this  light,  there  seems  to  be  no  ground  left  on  which  you 
would  justify  a  veto,  except  that  this  bill  establishes  a 
principle  which  your  Board  of  Education  has  disapproved — 
the  principle  of  '  equalization.' 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        205 

"  We  beg  you  to  believe  that  many  members  o£  said 
Board  approve  this  principle,  that  public  sentiment  is  over- 
whelmingly in  favor  of  it,  that  all  Civil  Service  standards 
demand  it,  and  that  we  pray  you  to  agree  with  us  in  the 
opinion  that  '  the  position  should  command  the  salary '  irre- 
spective of  color,  size,  weight,  race,  religion,  politics,  or 
sex  of  the  person  occupying  same. 

"  Further  Reasons  for  Approval  of  Senate  Bill  1218 : 

"  It  secures  justice  to  13,000  of  the  citizens  of  the  great 
city — to  13,000  of  the  city's  most  necessary,  valuable  and 
worthy  employees. 

"  It  gives  a  far  greater  measure  of  Home  Rule  than  does 
Sec.  1091  of  Charter  it  amends. 

"  The  great  majority  of  the  best  citizens  of  the  city  re- 
quest it — witness: 

"  Over  100,000  names  on  petitions  representing  hundreds 
of  millions  of  taxable  property. 

"  Over  5,000  telegrams  sent  you  by  citizens  requesting  its 
approval. 

"  Over  5,000  Individual  requests  of  Primary  Teachers  for 
Approval  of  bill. 

"  State  Representatives  approve  it : 

"Witness:  21  Senators,  i  against;  63  Assemblymen,  3 
against. 

"  City  representatives  approve  it :  witness  unanimous 
resolutions  of  Board  of  Aldermen. 

"  Over  5,000  petitions  of  Primary  Teachers  as  against 
the  few  who  seek  to  defeat  the  bill." 

Some  of  the  men  employed  in  the  School  Department 
banded  themselves  together  to  oppose  this  measure.  From 
them  and  from  them  alone  have  emanated  several  state- 
ments purporting  to  give  reasons  against  this  measure.  Let 
us  examine  these  "  reasons." 

1.  Women  always  have  earned  less  than  men. 

2.  It  would  belittle  the  men  to  earn  the  same  salaries  as 
the  women. 

3.  Men  would  not  get  ahead  in  the  school  system. 


2o6         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

4.  Men  are  better  teachers  than  women. 

5.  Men  have  families  to  support. 

6.  Men  have  a  contract  which  this  law  would  break. 
The  first  reason  is  a  recapitulation  of  the  old  argument 

used  by  the  defenders  of  every  hoary  wrong.  It  amounts 
to  saying  that  a  custom  is  good  and  should  be  perpetuated 
because  it  is  old.  Slavery,  polygamy  and  brigandage  relied 
for  ages  upon  this  argument. 

To  the  second  declaration  that  it  would  belittle  the  men 
to  receive  the  same  salaries  as  women,  it  is  enough  to 
answer  that  it  is  infinitely  more  belittling  for  them  to  sup- 
port an  unjust  system  whereby  women  are  paid  only  one- 
half  as  much  as  men  for  doing  the  same  work  with  equal 
faithfulness,  fidelity  and  success. 

Another  link  in  their  chain  of  argument  is  that  men 
would  not  get  ahead  in  the  school  system  as  fast  as  they 
do  now.  They  may  be  right  in  this  conclusion,  if  they 
mean  that  favoritism  and  discrimination  in  their  favor  be- 
cause they  are  men  would  no  longer  be  factors  in  promo- 
tion. But  if  they  mean  that  hard  work,  attention  to  duty, 
competency,  satisfactory  results,  are  not  to  receive  recogni- 
tion, they  are  profoundly  mistaken.  These  elements  of 
service  will  be  the  factors  in  determining  promotion  in  the 
future.  The  merit  system  will  obtain  instantaneous  recog- 
nition in  the  School  Department  as  never  before  in  its  his- 
tory, and  ambitious,  progressive  men  will  have  a  better 
chance  and  a  wider  range  of  opportunity  than  ever  before. 

Men  are  better  teachers  than  women,  they  say.  This  is 
the  fourth  reason.  If  that  is  so,  men  will  soon  dominate 
in  the  school  system  of  New  York,  for  salaries  will  be  as 
attractive  for  all  in  a  given  grade  or  schedule  as  they  are 
now  for  a  chosen  few  in  that  grade  or  schedule,  a  chosen 
few  whose  claim  to  special  financial  recognition  by  the  city 
is  the  fact  that  they  are  men.  That  argument  answers  it- 
self. Of  course  there  is  a  further  fact  that  those  of  us 
who  have  attended  school  and  who  have  had  an  opportunity 
to  judge,  do  not  come  to  the  same  conclusion  as  to  the  rela- 
tive ability  of  men  and  women  teachers  as  do  these  sapient 
gentlemen. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        207 

But  what  can  we  say  in  response  to  the  statement  that 
men  have  families  to  support?  Granting  this  as  an  argu- 
ment, it  must  be  acknowledged  that  it  costs  a  woman  just 
as  much  to  support  a  family  as  it  costs  a  man.  They  know 
that  while  she  may  be  compelled  to  accept  a  salary  fifty 
per  cent,  less  than  his  salary  she  is  not  given  a  correspond- 
ing reduction  in  anything  she  buys.  They  know  that  she 
must  pay  as  much  for  clothing  and  board  and  car  fare 
and  theater  tickets  and  medical  attendance  and  shoes  and 
the  other  necessaries  of  life  as  they.  She  must  endure  the 
humiliation  of  accepting  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  when 
drawing  her  wages,  but  she  finds  no  corresponding  reduc- 
tion in  the  price  of  anything  she  buys  through  all  the  wide 
range  of  possible  purchases.  Is  it  not  true  that  in  thou- 
sands of  cases,  right  here  in  the  school  system  of  New 
York,  women  are  supporting  families  or  aiding  brothers 
and  sisters  to  obtain  an  education  and  to  embark  in  a  pro- 
fession? This  is  true  in  even  a  larger  degree  than  might 
be  supposed  at  first  thought.  The  old  order  changes.  Years 
ago  the  son  was  the  reliance  and  the  mainstay  of  aged 
parents.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  old  folks  and  stayed 
at  home  and  remained  single  in  order  to  provide  for  them. 
Now  the  burden  is  frequently  shifted  to  the  daughter.  The 
son  marries  and  has  a  family  of  his  own.,  while  the  daugh- 
ter remains  at  home  and  cares  for  her  parents.  This  is  a 
phase  of  social  conditions  in  New  York  city  to-day  which 
represents  a  changing  sense  of  family  loyalty  and  duty.  It 
is  not  easy  to  explain ;  but  it  exists,  nevertheless. 

What  about  the  implied  contract  the  men  say  in  their 
sixth  objection  to  this  bill  they  have  with  the  city?  They 
have  no  contract  either  expressed  or  implied  which  depends 
for  its  validity  upon  denying  their  women  associates  in  the 
School  Department  the  right  to  equal  pay  for  equal  work. 
There  is  no  law,  no  contract,  no  bond  guaranteeing  to  them 
the  right  to  advance  at  the  expense  of  their  fellow  teachers 
of  the  female  sex.  But  the  women  teachers  have  a  guar- 
antee by  virtue  of  their  citizenship,  both  from  State  and 
nation,  that  they  shall  have  equal  treatment  before  the  law 
with  all  other  citizens  and  that  no  disability  shall  be  at- 


2o8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

tached  to  them  by  reason  of  race  or  creed  or  sex.  And 
this  bond  is  paramount  and  perpetual. 

The  Association  of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals  evi- 
dently believe  in  the  present  Charter  provision  called  the 
Davis  law  because  it  does  not  observe  the  principle  of 
Home  Rule  with  such  breadth  and  sweep  as  does  the  White 
bill.  In  their  circular  entitled  "Why  Senate  Bill  No.  1162 
cannot  accomplish  its  purpose,"  they  say :  "  The  Davis  law 
lacks  the  broad  generalization  of  the  White  bill.  .  .  . 
If  it  is  wise  to  regulate  the  salaries  of  policemen  and  other 
city  officials  by  statute,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  well- 
founded  reason  against  the  retention  of  similar  legislation 
in  the  case  of  schools.  To  substitute  for  fixed,  definite 
salaries,  guaranteed  by  the  State,  a  fluctuating  system, 
changing  from  year  to  year,  sensitive  to  financial  depres- 
sion, and  responsive  to  the  caprice  and  whim  of  municipal 
political  fortune,  would  seem  a  long  step  backward.  It  is 
earnestly  hoped  that  very  careful  consideration  will  be 
given  before  so  revolutionary  a  bill  is  made  a  law." 

The  Men  Teachers  and  Principals,  it  is  apparent,  are 
opposed  to  the  White  bill,  not  because  it  violates  the  prin- 
ciple of  Home  Rule,  but  because  it  refers  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  salaries,  subject  to  a  few  general  principles,  back 
to  the  Board  of  Education,  thus  recognizing  Home  Rule. 
They  are  opposed  to  the  bill  which  they  call  "  revolution- 
ary "  because  it  recognizes  the  principle  of  Home  Rule  and 
gives  back  to  the  Board  of  Education  certain  broad  and 
sweeping  powers  which  the  Davis  law  took  away.  The 
Legislature  in  passing  this  act  was  so  careful  to  confer  full 
authority  upon  the  Board  of  Education  under  the  general 
declaration  of  equality,  a  sentiment  in  no  sense  local  or 
limited,  that  the  Men  Teachers  and  Principals  opposed  the 
bill.  They  cried  out  against  it  because  full  authority  under 
the  declaration  of  equality  is  bestowed  upon  the  Board  of 
Education,  an  authority  which  the  male  opponents  of  the 
measure  denominate  the  "  caprice  and  whim  of  municipal 
political  fortune."  The  Legislature  has  passed  an  act  con- 
taining a  declaration  of  a  principle  as  broad  as  humanity 
and  as  enduring  as  justice;  under  which  it  restores  to  the 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        209 

Board  of  Education  the  power  of  which  it  was  deprived 
seven  years  ago.  At  the  same  time  it  has  furnished  ample 
funds  to  readjust  the  salary  schedules  on  an  equitable  basis. 

The  Board  of  Education,  through  its  apparently  author- 
ized spokesman,  Mr.  Abraham  Stern,  absolutely  refused  to 
consider  any  request  involving  "  equalization."  This  was 
the  only  ground  on  which  our  organization  could,  under 
its  Constitution,  stand. 

Furthermore,  the  Interborough  realized  that  no  officer  or 
body  of  officers  of  the  City  government  could  eliminate  the 
words  "male"  and  "female"  from  Section  1091  of  the 
City  Charter. 

Thus  was  the  appeal  to  "  Albany  "  justified, 

Mr.  Abraham  Stern's  Objections:  "Bill  is  a  viola- 
tion of  *  Home  Rule.'  "  We  grant  that  the  bill  is  manda- 
tory in  some  of  its  provisions ;  but  it  is  evident  to  every 
fair-minded  student  of  this  bill  that  it  gives  to  the  Board 
of  Education  a  far  greater  measure  of  "  Home  Rule  "  than 
does  Sec.  1091  of  the  Charter  which  it  seeks  to  amend. 

Mr.  Stem  is  right  in  saying  it  compels  the  raising  of  the 
lowest  salary  $600  to  $720,  and  the  reduction  of  a  16-year 
term  to  12  years.  For  seven  years  the  Board  has  failed  to 
see  the  unfairness  in  the  present  conditions.  Our  State 
representaives  were  amazed  to  find  our  teachers  so  meanly 
paid. 

Mr.  Stern's  arguments  and  Mr.  Maxwell's  letter  both 
showed  a  failure  to  grasp  the  true  situation.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  "  White  "  bill  which  would  make  it  neces- 
sary to  transfer  "  all  men  (519)  in  grades  from  2  B  to 
6B"  (Mr.  Maxwell's  letter)  into  grades  above  the  6B 
between  now  and  January  i,  1908,  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing the  necessity  of  paying  all  teachers  of  boys'  classes  be- 
low the  seventh  year  salaries  according  to  $900  .  .  .  2160 
schedule.  That  schedule  is  secured  to  men  below  the  7th 
year  grades  only  by  a  by-law  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
and  therefore  it  can  be  amended  at  any  meeting  of  said 
Board.  Suppose,  then,  that  the  "  McCarren  schedules " 
were  adopted  by  the  Board.  No  men  would  need  to  find 
places  in  "  the  grades  of  the  last  two  years  "  (Davis  law) 


210         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

in  order  to  secure  continuance  of  $105  increment  to  $2,160 
except  those  who  had  completed  eight  years  in  the  lower 
grades.  This  number  at  present  is  53,  that  is  466  less 
than  the  519  mentioned  in  Mr.  Maxwell's  letter.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  even  those  who  believe  that  men  are 
needed  below  the  7  A  grade  need  have  no  fear. 

Mr.  Stern  said  where  there  are  men  in  the  grades  the 
"  schedules  must  be  different  "  from  the  schedules  of  grades 
where  there  are  no  men.  This  does  not  appear  in  the 
"  White  "  bill.  There  is  nothing  in  the  "  White  "  bill  to 
prevent  the  Board  of  Education  from  making  uniform 
schedules  for  all  grades  below  7  A.  Then,  where  is  there 
ground  for  all  the  wild  and  unfounded  fears  of  "  the  pri- 
mary teachers"  and  their  recently  discovered  friends? 
Surely  not  in  the  "  White  "  bill ;  but  rather  in  the  distrust 
of  the  Board  of  Education. 

Mr.  Stern  contrasted  the  salary  of  a  teacher  in  the  4  A 
and  that  of  a  teacher  in  the  4  B,  intimating  that  the  latter 
would  receive  50  per  cent,  more  than  the  former,  and 
claimed  that  here  was  "  the  most  pernicious  and  vicious 
feature  of  this  bill."  This  arbitrary  division  between  the 
4  B  and  the  4  A  is  absolutely  unjustifiable  by  any  pro- 
vision of  the  "  White  "  bill. 

We  are  surprised  to  have  Mr.  Stern  compare  the  teach- 
ers with  the  employees  of  the  business  world.  The  teacher's 
is  a  Civil  Service  appointment.  She  is  taken  out  of  the 
conditions  which  prevail  in  the  open  market,  and  after  hav- 
ing complied  with  all  the  requirements,  and  having  passed  a 
competitive  examination,  she  is  placed  on  an  eligible  list; 
then  she  must  await  appointment  in  order  of  standing. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

THE     WHITE     BILL — 1908 

The  White  bill  of  1908  was  practically  the  same  as  that 
of  1907,  which  had  passed  both  houses  of  the  Legislature 
twice;  but  it  had  been  carefully  redrawn  by  Horace  E. 
Deming,  who  had  represented  us  at  the  Governor's  hear- 
ing in  1907,  and  who  was  familiar  with  the  objections  which 
had  been  made  against  it. 

Two  of  the  reasons  given  by  Mayor  McClellan  for  his 
veto,  namely,  that  the  principle  of  Home  Rule  was  vio- 
lated, and  that  the  bill  was  mandatory,  had  been  rendered 
null  and  void  in  the  following  words  by  Governor  Hughes 
in  his  veto  message  on  the  bill : 

"  Apart  from  the  power  of  the  Mayor  to  appoint  and  re- 
move as  stated,  and  the  duty  of  the  city  to  supply  the  funds 
as  required,  the  Board  of  Education  exercises  its  powers 
independently.  It  is  not  subject  to  control  by  the  city  au- 
thorities. There  is  no  contract  or  official  relations  between 
the  teachers  and  the  city." 

"  The  Board  of  Education  has  the  management  and  con- 
trol of  the  public  schools  and  of  the  public  school  system 
of  the  city,  subject  only  to  the  general  statutes  of  the  State 
relating  to  public  schools  and  public  school  instruction  and 
to  the  provisions  of  the  charter." 

The  Mayor's  third  reason,  the  expense,  we  held  to  be 
entirely  covered  by  the  provision  of  our  bill  which  in- 
creased the  three-mill  tax  to  four  mills,  and  we  believed 
that  unless  a  majority  of  the  taxpayers  of  the  city  objected 
no  one  else  should. 

The  Governor  in  his  veto  message  had  said: 

"  The  Board  of  Education  is  thus  directly  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  Legislature,  and  whatever  provisions  may  be 
found  necessary  or  wise  for  the  purpose  of  defining  its 
powers  or  prescribing  its  policy  must  be  prescribed  by  the 

211 


212         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Legislature.  No  other  authority  is  competent  to  make  such 
provision."  The  Governor  also  said,  "  But  while  the  Leg- 
islature has  power  to  deal  with  every  phase  of  the  matter, 
the  course  which  experience  approves  is  that  certain  gen- 
eral principles  of  action  should  be  laid  down,  and  that 
within  these  principles,  freedom  with  reference  to  details 
of  management  should  be  left  to  the  subordinate  body  act- 
ing with  peculiar  knowledege  of  local  conditions." 

We  were  asking  the  Legislature  to  lay  down  the  general 
principle,  "  There  shall  be  no  discrimination  in  salary  on 
account  of  the  sex  of  the  incumbent  of  a  position."  This 
principle  had  prevailed  in  Brooklyn  until  the  Legislature, 
by  passing  the  "  Davis  Bill "  in  1900,  instituted  the  sched- 
ules which  we  were  seeking  to  amend.  The  "  Davis  Bill  " 
had  put  upon  thousands  of  the  best  citizens  of  the  city  a 
degrading  discrimination.  The  Legislature  of  1907  becom- 
ing aware  of  this  injustice  twice  had  voted  to  remove  it. 

Some  have  said,  "  Your  Board  of  Education  has  power  to 
amend  these  schedules  as  you  desire."  This  is  true.  But 
after  repeated  appeals,  our  Board  of  Education  has  failed 
so  to  amend  them.  Governor  Hughes,  in  his  veto  message 
of  our  bill,  states  "  under  the  by-laws  adopted  by  the  board 
(referring  to  the  Board  of  Education)  glaring  inequalities 
now  exist."  Again  Governor  Hughes,  in  the  same  message, 
says,  "  It  is  proposed  by  legislative  enactment  to  establish 
the  proposition  that  for  work  of  a  given  position  women 
shall  receive  equal  pay  with  men.  It  is  for  this  principle 
the  supporters  of  the  bill  contend,  and  not  for  mere  in- 
creased pay.  The  gross  inequalities  which  have  been  per- 
mitted by  the  Board  of  Education,  and  which  clearly  should 
not  be  continued,  are  pointed  out  for  the  purpose  of  em- 
phasizing the  principle  in  question." 

Impelled  probably  by  these  opinions  so  clearly  expressed 
by  the  Governor,  our  Board  of  Education  had  prepared 
salary  schedules  which  reduced  to  some  extent  the  "  glar- 
ing inequalities,"  and  which  called  for  an  additional  appro- 
priation of  about  $3,000,000.  But  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment  refused  to  allow  money  for  this  pro- 
posed increase.    All  this  in  the  face  of  the  undeniable  fact 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         213 

that  upward  of  20,000  of  the  city's  children,  and  therefore 
of  the  children  who,  under  the  constitution  of  the  State, 
must  be  given  an  education,  are  without  regular  teachers. 

But  we  found  a  special  reason  for  appealing  to  Albany 
again  in  the  last  sentence  of  Governor  Hughes'  message, 
which  ran  as  follows :  "  The  matter  should  be  left  to  the 
Board  of  Education  to  be  dealt  with  locally,  as  it  may  seem 
best,  unless  the  Legislature  is  prepared  to  lay  down  the 
general  principle  for  the  entire  State  and  the  entire  public 
service." 

We  believed  that  the  Legislature,  in  again  passing  our 
bill,  would  give  proof  that  it  was  "  prepared  to  lay  down 
the  general  principle  for  the  entire  State  and  the  entire 
public  service."  But  as  New  York  City  is  the  only  city 
in  which  the  State  has  fixed  salaries  for  teachers,  and  our 
appeal  was  therefore  for  an  amendment  to  the  Charter  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  we  did  not  feel  justified  in  making 
our  bill  a  State  bill.  Furthermore,  the  State,  in  its  appro- 
priation act,  does  provide  salaries  for  positions  regardless 
of  the  sex  of  the  incumbent. 

Our  bill  was  passed  by  the  Senate  with  more  than  a  two- 
thirds  vote,  the  longest  speech  against  it  being  made  by 
Senator  Travis  of  Kings,  who  insisted  that  he  believed  in 
"  Equal  Pay,"  praised  women  teachers,  spoke  of  the  unem- 
ployed and  the  cost  of  the  bill.  The  eight  Senators  who 
voted  against  us  were  all  so-called  "  Hughes'  Senators." 

When  the  bill  reached  the  Assembly  it  became  evident 
that  it  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  considered  in 
connection  with  the  approaching  gubernatorial  and  presi- 
dential election. 

The  following  letter,  written  while  the  bill  was  being  held 
in  the  Cities  Committee,  is  offered  in  evidence.  I  submit 
it  without  names  at  the  request  of  the  recipient: 

"  Albany,  N.  Y,,  March  12,  1908. 

"  I  have  your  letter  of  the  loth  inst.  and  wish  to  say  that 

I  do  not  believe  that  you  mean  to  refer  to  me  when  you 

speak  of  a  *  hold  up.'    I  have  never  been  accused  of  such 

action  on  legislation  nor  do  I  believe  that  the  other  mem- 


214         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

bers  of  the  committee  of  the  Affairs  of  Cities  who  have 
taken  the  same  action  as  I,  do  so  from  any  such  mo- 
tives. If  there  were  no  other  reason  for  my  opposing  the 
bill  I  would  do  so  for  the  protection  of  Governor  Hughes. 

"  I  helped  to  give  the  teachers  an  opportunity  to  present 
their  cause  to  him  last  year.  He  has  stated  his  opinion 
which  he  has  not  yet  changed.  I  consider  their  efforts  this 
year  one  intended  to  put  him  in  as  bad  a  position  as  pos- 
sible. Because  of  the  politicians  who  are  behind  this  mat- 
ter, I  consider  that  it  has  developed  into  a  political  game 
of  the  meanest  kind. 

"  I  trust  that  you  will  consider  the  above  remarks  not  as 
directed  against  the  women  school  teachers,  whom  I  con- 
sider a  very  deserving  class  and  whom  I  would  like  to  aid, 
but  rather  at  the  methods  being  used  to  further  the  polit- 
ical designs  of  certain  politicians. 

"With  kindest  regards,  I  am, 

"Very  truly  yours, 

"(Signed) ." 

In  the  issue  of  March  30,  1908.,  a  New  York  morning 
paper  printed  the  following  from  its  correspondent  in  Al- 
bany :  "  Speaker  Wadsworth  accorded  the  school  teachers 
an  hour's  interview,  and  the  bill  in  all  its  phases  was  dis- 
cussed in  his  private  room.  Politics  now  figure  in  the 
passage  of  the  bill.  It  is  said  that  Governor  Hughes  does 
not  want  the  bill  to  be  put  up  to  him  a  second  time.  His 
friends  say  that  a  veto  of  it  on  the  eve  of  a  Presidential 
election  might  be  injurious  to  him.  For  that  reason  the 
*  Hughes  Senators '  voted  against  it.  The  Hughes  men  on 
the  Rules  Committee  are  taking  this  view  of  the  political 
end  of  the  bill  and  it  is  still  hanging  fire  there." 

The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  the  above  is  scarcely 
complimentary  to  the  Executive  of  a  great  Commonwealth 
where  12,000  of  its  law-abiding  citizens — without  the 
franchise — are  trying  to  have  a  recognized  injustice  cor- 
rected by  the  body  that  enacted  it. 

While  the  bill  was  pending  in  the  Rules  Committee,  we 
made  the  following  appeal: 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         215 

"  In  the  name  of  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers,  consisting  of  over  12,000  of  the  women  in  the 
Supervising  and  Teaching  force  of  the  pubHc  school  sys- 
tem in  the  City  of  New  York,  I  do  pray  you  to  report  out 
Senate  Cities  Committee  Bill  686,  familiarly  known  as  the 
'  Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill.'  I  base  my  petition  on 
the  following: 

"  I.  Because  the  Bill  is  a  Senate  Cities  Committee  Bill ; 

"2.  Because  the  Bill  passed  the  Senate  by  more  than  a 
two-thirds  vote; 

"3.  Because  the  Bill  is  similar  to,  but  an  improvement 
on  the  Senate  Cities  Committee  Bill  1218  of  the  last  ses- 
sion, which  passed  the  Assembly  first  by  a  vote  of  105  to 
15,  and  second,  after  Mayor  McClellan's  veto,  by  a  vote  of 
82  to  55 ; 

"4.  Because  the  Board  of  Aldermen  representing  the 
people  of  the  City  of  New  York,  has  unanimously  endorsed 
the  measure ; 

"  5.  Because  the  Bill  is  endorsed  by  nearly  300  civic, 
religious,  political,  social,  business  and  labor  organizations 
in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  throughout  the  entire  State, 
representing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  voters  and  many 
millions  of  capital ; 

"  6.  Because  thousands  of  individual  citizens  and  tax- 
payers, fully  cognizant  of  the  meaning  and  cost  of  this  par- 
ticular piece  of  legislation,  have  added  their  endorsement 
to  our  petition; 

"  7.  Because  at  two  very  enthusiastic  Mass  Meetings, 
resolutions  praying  the  Legislature  to  pass  this  Bill  were 
unanimously  adopted.  At  the  Cooper  Union  Meeting,  the 
resolution  was  moved  by  Rev.  Henry  A.  Mottet,  Pastor  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Communion,  New  York;  and  at 
the  Brooklyn  meeting,  by  Rev,  Lynn  P.  Armstrong,  Rector 
of  the  Cuyler  Presbyterian  Church  ; 

"  8.  Because  the  Legislature  owes  this  measure  of  relief 
and  justice  to  the  women  teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
since  it  was  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  in  1900  that  the 
unusual  and  unjust  discrimination  against  women  on  ac- 
count of  sex  was  fixed  by  statute; 


2i6         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"9.  Because  the  passagie  of  this  bill  will  purge  the  stat- 
utes of  the  Empire  State  of  the  only  law  which  discrimi- 
nates against  woman  in  the  labor  market  simply  on  account 
of  her  sex ; 

"  10.  Because  all  the  evidence  tends  to  show  that  if  the 
relief  sought  by  the  women  teachers  could  be  granted  di- 
rectly by  the  voters  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  women 
would  be  immediately  successful ; 

"  II.  Because  if  we  are  to  go  down  to  defeat  in  the 
Assembly,  we  would  like  our  friends  in  said  body  to  have 
an  opportunity  of  showing  their  loyalty  to  our  cause. 

"  12.  Because  it  is  right. 

"  Do  not  kill  us  like  rats  in  a  trap.  Give  us  a  chance, 
at  least,  in  the  open  field." 

In  addition  to  this,  a  petition  begun  by  Assemblyman 
Conklin — the  "  father  "  of  the  Assembly  bill — and  circu- 
lated among  the  members  of  that  body,  was  signed  by  104 
of  the  105  members  not  on  the  Rules  Committee.  But  the 
committee  did  not  report  the  bill.  This  seemed  so  con- 
trary to  the  true  spirit  of  a  democratic  government  that 
I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  Mary  Chalmers — one  of  our 
most  conservative  members — say :  "  Now  I  know  how 
anarchists  are  made." 


CHAPTER   XIX' 

CONCILIATION     COMMITTEE     AND    SIX-AND-SIX     PLAN 

In  the  fall  of  1908,  a  committee  of  men  and  women, 
which  came  to  be  known  as  the  Conciliation  Committee, 
was  organized,  with  Henry  N.  Tifft,  a  former  president  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  as  chairman,  and  Charles  Dewey, 
president  of  the  Male  Principals'  Association,  as  secretary. 
The  other  members  were : 

Katharine  D.  Blake,  principal  elementary  school ; 

Katharine  A.  McCann,  principal  elementary  school; 

Annie  B.  Moriarty,  principal  elementary  school  and  vice- 
president  Interborongh  Association  of  Women  Teachers ; 

Kate  Turner,  first  assistant,  high  school ; 

Grace  C.  Strachan,  district  superintendent  of  schools  and 
president  of  Interborongh  Association  of  Women  Teachers ; 

Mary  Moore  Orr,  Local  School  Board : 

Miriam  Sutro  Price,  president  Public  Education  Society; 

J.  Edward  Swanstrom,  author  of  the  "  Swanstrom  Six- 
and-Six  Plan,"  ex-president  Borough  of  Brooklyn,  ex-pres- 
ident Board  of  Education ; 

Walter  B.  Gunnison,  principal  high  school; 

Magnus  Gross,  teacher  of  8  B  and  president  of  New  York 
City  Teachers'  Association; 

James  J.  Sheppard,  principal  high  school  and  president 
Interborongh  Council,  and, 

Frank  L.  Perkins,  principal  elementary  school  and  presi- 
dent Brooklyn  Teachers'  Association. 

Before  the  work  of  this  committee  was  completed,  Mr. 
Gross  and  Mr.  Sheppard  resigned.  The  final  report  con- 
tained a  schedule  of  salaries  in  which  there  was  no  diflPer- 
ence  in  salary  based  on  the  sex  of  the  teacher.  The  report 
was  adopted  by  representatives  from  a  majority  of  all  the 
teachers'  associations  in  the  city  by  a  vote  of  15  to  7. 

This  meeting  of  the  presidents  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 

217 


2i8  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

tion  and  the  various  associations  of  teachers  and  principals 
of  this  city  was  held  in  the  Board  Rooms,  Hall  of  Educa- 
tion, at  8  p.  M.,  on  Thursday,  April  i,  1909. 

Hon.  Egerton  L.  Winthrop,  Jr.,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  was  asked  to  preside,  and  Mr.  Charles  O. 
Dewey,  president  of  the  Principals'  (Male)  Association  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  was  elected  secretary. 

Among  those  present  were  Egerton  L.  Winthrop, 
president  of  the  Board  of  Education ;  Commissioners 
A.  Stern,  Barrett,  Kanzler,  Haupt,  and  Katzenberg; 
President  Grace  C.  Strachan  of  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers,  President  J.  J.  Sheppard 
of  the  Interborough  Council,  President  Mary  Curtis, 
Association  of  Women  Principals  of  New  York  City ; 
President  W.  A.  Boylan  of  the  Principals'  Club,  Pres- 
ident Charles  O.  Dewey  of  City  Principals'  Association, 
President  Magnus  Gross  of  the  New  York  City  Teachers' 
Association,  President  F.  K.  Perkins  of  the  Brooklyn 
Teachers'  Association,  President  E.  S.  Shumway  of  the 
Male  High  School  Teachers'  Association,  President  J.  S. 
Tildsley  of  the  High  School  Teachers'  Association,  Prin- 
cipal Fanny  S.  Comings  of  the  Brooklyn  Heads  of  Depart- 
ments, President  Mary  Lilly,  New  York  Heads  of  Depart- 
ments ;  President  Fred  Paine  of  the  Association  of  Male 
First  Assistant  Teachers  in  High  Schools,  President  Edgar 
Vanderbilt  of  the  Male  Principals'  Association  of  Manhat- 
tan and  the  Bronx,  Henry  Moore  of  the  Male  Teachers  of 
Brooklyn  and  Queens,  President  Alice  Gray  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Class  Teachers'  Association,  President  Lina  E.  Gano 
of  the  Women's  High  School  Teachers'  Association,  Miss 
Katherine  D.  Blake,  W.  B.  Gunnison,  Miss  Kate  E.  Turner, 
President  Van  Evrie  Kilpatrick  of  the  School  Garden  As- 
sociation, S.  C.  Walmsley,  R.  Richardson,  M.  D.  Ouinn, 
Mrs.  A.  B.  Moriarty,  Miss  Clara  C.  Calkins,  representing 
the  Women  Principals'  Association  of  Brooklyn. 

Among  the  most  interesting  statements  made  in  the  dis- 
cussion preceding  the  vote  on  these  "  Conciliation  Sched- 
ules," were  the  following:  Miss  Alice  Gray,  president  of 
the   Class   Teachers'   Association,   approved   "  particularly 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        210 

the  clause  relative  to  class  teachers'  salaries,  and  more  par- 
ticularly those  additional  salaries  given  to  teachers  of  boys' 
and  of  mixed  classes  in  the  lower  grades,  increasing  from 
the  first  and  second  years  to  the  third  and  fourth  and  then 
again  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  " ;  and  Mr.  Edgar  S.  Shumway, 
president  of  the  Male  Teachers'  Association,  said,  "  I  am 
free  to  say  that  if  the  money  were  under  my  control,  I 
would  see  to  it  that  the  woman  who  is  first  assistant  in 
high  school,  as  I  am,  received  as  much  money  as  I  re- 
ceived." 

The  committee  was  unanimous  in  its  opinion  that  a  kin- 
dergarten class  could  not  be  a  true  kindergarten  class  un- 
less it  consisted  of  both  boys  and  girls,  and  therefore  that 
the  teacher  of  such  a  class  should  receive  no  bonus.  The 
statement  that  the  elasticity  of  schedules  is  endangered  by 
the  new  law  is  also  misleading. 

The  schedule  is  uniform  for  all  teachers  in  the  grades  of 
the  first  six  years,  except  for  the  variance  in  bonuses  for 
mixed  and  boys'  classes.  The  Conciliation  Committee  was 
also  unanimous  in  its  opinion  that  the  best  interest  of  the 
children  of  the  city  would  be  conserved  by  having  all  classes 
in  the  first  six  years  mixed  classes,  and  therefore  the  bo- 
nuses were  so  planned,  as  to  make  it  cheaper  for  the  Board 
of  Education  to  make  two  classes  mixed  classes,  rather 
than  one  a  girls'  class  and  the  other  a  boys'  class.  For  in- 
stance :  in  the  group  where  the  bonus  for  the  mixed  classes 
is  $60  the  bonus  for  a  boys'  class  is  $132.  Therefore,  the 
Board  would  save  $12  on  every  two  classes  that  it  organ- 
ized as  mixed  classes,  rather  than  as  one  a  girls'  class  and 
the  other  a  boys'  class. 

This  plan  also  makes  it  possible  for  the  Board  to  oflFer 
some  special  inducement  to  men  teachers,  as  the  salary  for 
a  boys'  class,  even  in  grades  of  the  first  six  years,  is  from 
$60  to  $180  higher  than  the  salary  for  a  girls'  class.  All 
who  are  familiar  with  the  workings  of  the  system  of  the 
public  education  in  this  city,  know  that  it  is  much  more 
difficult  to  get  teachers  for  mixed  and  for  boys'  classes 
than  it  is  for  girls'  classes,  and  in  this  particular  the  com- 
mittee believed  that  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  was 


220         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

properly  recognized  in  offering  a  larger  salary  for  the 
teacher  of  boys. 

In  the  grades  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  years,  the  de- 
partmental system  is  now  quite  generally  used,  and  it  often 
happens  that  a  teacher  assigned  to  a  grade  of  the  7  A  girls 
in  charge  of  the  mathematics,  spends  half  her  time  teach- 
ing boys  of  various  grades,  including,  frequently,  boys  of 
the  graduating  classes.  We  believe  that  it  is  manifestly  un- 
fair then  to  pay  such  a  teacher  only  the  salary  of  a  7  A 
girls'  class.  We  believe  that  this  work  should  be  treated 
practically  the  same  as  that  in  high  schools,  where  a  teacher 
is  in  charge  of  a  special  subject.  In  high  schools  there  is 
but  one  salary,  and  therefore  in  the  new  schedules  but  one 
salary  is  provided  for  teachers  of  the  grades  of  the  seventh 
and  eighth  years,  excepting  that  there  is  the  bonus  for 
teachers  in  mixed  and  in  boys'  schools.  Again,  this  is  to 
meet  the  contention  that  in  order  to  get  teachers  of  boys,  a 
higher  salary  should  be  offered. 

The  statement  that  the  new  bill  adds  a  year  to  the  ele- 
mentary school  course  is  also  wrong.  At  present  there  is 
an  eight-year  elementary  school  course  and  a  four-year 
high  school  course.  The  committee  was  in  favor  of  divid- 
ing those  twelve  years  according  to  the  Six-and-Six  plan, 
or  rather  Six-and-Three-and-Three  plan.  This  subdivision 
has  been  approved  by  the  City  Club,  by  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  by  the  Department  of  Education  in 
France  and  Japan,  as  well  as  in  ten  of  the  large  cities  in 
this  country. 

The  report  of  the  Conciliation  Committee  includes  prac- 
tically all  of  the  "  Swanstrom  "  and  "  City  Club  "  Six-and- 
Six  plan.  I  regret  that  lack  of  space  prohibits  my  includ- 
ing all  the  opinions  of  prominent  educators  that  have  been 
expressed  on  this  plan.  All  reports  agree  that  there  is 
something  wrong  with  our  present  Course  of  Study,  par- 
ticularly in  what  it  does  for  the  majority  boy  or  girl  that 
leaves  school  at  fourteen — the  compulsory  school  age  in 
this  State.  Personally,  I  feel  very  strongly  on  this  point; 
and  were  there  no  other  element  of  great  value  in  the  Six- 
and-Six  plan,  I  would  favor  it  because  its  adoption  would 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        221 

force  a  revision  of  the  Course  of  Study  that  would  benefit 
this  majority  boy  and  girl. 

Briefly,  the  Six-and-Six  plan  provides  that  the  twelve 
years  now  divided  into  an  eight-year  elementary  course  and 
a  four-year  high  school  course  be  divided  into  a  six-year 
elementary  and  a  six-year  high  school  course ;  and  that  this 
latter  be  subdivided  into  a  three-year  "  junior  "  or  "  sub  " 
high  school  course  to  be  taught  in  one  or  more  buildings 
in  each  school  district,  and  a  three-year  full  high  school 
course  preparing  for  college,,  professional,  or  advanced  vo- 
cational work;  that  the  first  two  years  of  the  junior  high 
school  have  elective  trade  courses,  the  third  to  be  a  double 
course,  one  part  consisting  of  subjects  now  taught  in  the 
first  year  of  the  present  high  school  and  the  other  of  trade 
classes — an  arrangement  permitting  the  pupil  intending  to 
leave  school  at  the  end  of  the  junior  high  school  to  take,  if 
he  chooses,  a  full  trade  course. 

In  an  address  before  the  International  Congress  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  at  St.  Louis,  September  23,  1904,  City  Super- 
intendent Maxwell  advocated  practically  the  identical  plan 
now  "  proposed  "  by  the  City  Club.  In  the  course  of  that 
address  Dr.  Maxwell  said :  "  School  life  above  the  kinder- 
garten age  should  be  divided  into  two  equal  periods.  .  .  . 
Each  period  would  provide  for  six  years  of  school  work — 
the  elementary  from  six  to  twelve ;  the  secondary  from  thir- 
teen to  eighteen." 

The  National  Educational  Association  has  had  a  com- 
mittee working  on  this  problem  for  several  years,  and  in 
its  report  for  1908  says: 

"  It  is  well  to  note  that  within  the  present  year,  J.  Ed- 
ward Swanstrom,  for  some  time  president  of  the  Board  of 
Education  in  Brooklyn,  and  later  a  member  and  president 
of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Greater  New  York,  published 
in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  an  argument  for  the  adoption  of  the 
six-year  course  of  elementary  study,  to  be  followed  by  three 
years  of  work  in  the  lower  high  schools  plus  three  years 
in  the  upper  high  grade  or  specialized  high  schools.  In 
that  article  Mr.  Swanstrom  argues  forcibly  that  his  plan 
would  not  only  increase  the  educational  efficiency  of  the 


222         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

schools,  but  would  be  highly  economical  for  the  City  of 
Greater  New  York. 

"  At  least  ten  cities  in  the  United  States,  for  several 
years,  have  employed  the  proposed  six-year  division  and 
believe  it  to  be  more  economical." 

The  following  evidence  dissatisfaction  with  our  present 
courses : 

Schools  have  been  mapping  their  courses  to  prepare  pu- 
pils for  the  professions  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  only  lo 
per  cent,  ever  take  up  such  work.  Over  90  per  cent,  of 
the  population  enter  industries  and  the  schools  provide 
little  or  no  training.  This  education  of  the  few  to  the 
neglect  of  that  of  the  many  was  the  theme  of  an  address 
by  Arthur  Dean,  chief  of  the  Division  of  Trade  Schools  of 
the  State  Department  of  Education,  Albany,  at  the  Wash- 
ington Irving  High  School  yesterday.  He  made  a  plea  for 
revision  of  the  course.     In  part  he  said : 

"  Do  you  girls  know  what  per  cent,  of  our  population 
is  engaged  in  industrial  occupations?  Ninety  per  cent. 
Do  you  know  what  per  cent,  is  engaged  in  the  so-called 
learned  professions — teaching,  preaching,  doctoring,  etc.? 
Ten  per  cent.  What  is  now  beginning  to  seem  strange  and 
unfair  to  the  American  citizens  is  that  the  education  of- 
fered to  boys  and  girls  of  from  thirteen  years  of  age  up- 
ward has  been  conducted  entirely  for  the  10  per  cent.  The 
movement  into  which  America  is  now  entering  is  to  adjust 
secondary  education  to  the  lives  of  all,  not  a  part  of  its 
people.  Culture  must  and  will  exert  its  influence  upon 
American  life,  but  if  anyone  asserts  that  culture  is  to  be 
obtained  only  or  even  especially  in  the  high  school  courses 
now  in  vogue,  he  is  no  longer  to  be  believed.  There  is  no 
culture  superior  to  that  which  comes  from  doing  things 
which  one  can  see  the  use  of." 

REORGANIZE    THE    SCHOOLS 

"  I  would  give  no  less  attention  to  graduating  lawyers 
and  physicians,  but  would  give  a  great  deal  more  to  turn- 
ing out  of  our  public  schools  young  men  with  a  good, 


Hon.  Alfred  E.   Smith, 

Strongest  and  Hardest  Fighter  for  the  "Eqital  Pay"  Bills 
IN  THE  Assembly  Cities'  Committee,  the  Charter  Legisla- 
tive Committee  and  on  the  Floor  of  the   Assembly. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK        223 

common  school  education  plus  a  year's  practical  training 
at  some  useful  trade.  I  would  have  a  first-class  manual 
training  school  attached  to  every  high  school  and  to  every 
college  and  university,  where  young  men  could  be  turned 
out  good,  practical  journeymen,  blacksmiths,  boilermakers, 
carpenters,  cabinet  workers,  plumbers  or  skilled  workmen 
at  some  other  useful  trade.  I  would  increase  the  capacity 
of  these  schools  to  accommodate  every  child  in  the  com- 
munity and  then  I  would  make  attendance  compulsory. 

"  If  we  adopt  Germany's  system  of  technical  training, 
her  research  and  thoroughness,  and  combine  them  with  our 
inventions,  the  combination  would  dominate  the  world. 
Without  these  fundamental  qualities,  it  is  only  a  question  of 
time  when  this  country  must  surrender  its  place  as  a  leader 
among  the  great  manufacturing  nations  of  the  world." — 
President  W.  C.  Brown  of  the  New  York  Central. 

Standard-Union,  March  16,  1909: 

"a   new   plan   for   the   schools 

"  Of  the  various  plans  for  settling  the  diflFerences  be- 
tween the  men  and  women  teachers  on  the  question  of  pay, 
a  proposal  which  may  go  into  the  administrative  code  of 
the  charter  offers  the  best  prospect  of  bringing  about  agree- 
ment. It  divides  the  twelve  years  of  school  work  into  two 
periods  of  six  years  each  and  provides  that  all  teachers  in 
the  lower  six  years  shall  be  women.  In  the  upper  six  years 
all  teachers  shall  be  graduates  of  colleges,  and  there  shall 
be  no  distinction  of  sex  in  the  pay  schedules.  If  this  should 
receive  the  assent  of  the  majority  of  both  men  and  women 
teachers,  it  would  settle  the  salary  question  permanently. 

"  There  are  some  other  features  in  the  plan  which  will 
commend  it  to  the  public ;  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
any  breaking  up  of  the  accustomed  system  of  high  school 
education  will  do  away  with  many  cherished  associations 
and  require  a  good  deal  of  personal  adjustment  to  new 
conditions  by  meritorious  educators.  For  a  long  time  it 
has  been  sought  to  make  the  system  more  flexible,  so  as  to 


^24    EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

meet  the  various  needs  of  the  young  in  so  large  a  com- 
munity. It  is  true  that  under  the  present  methods  the  high 
schools  are  all  overcrowded ;  but  that  is  a  problem  by  itself. 
While  the  large  attendance  shows  that  present  opportu- 
nities are  appreciated,  it  does  not  prove  that  more  variety 
in  opportunity  would  not  be  welcomed.  Under  the  plan 
proposed  the  upper  six  years  would  afford  this  in  greater 
measure  than  now.  The  first  three  years,  a  sub-high  school 
course,  would  lead  either  to  three  years  more  of  work  in 
the  regular  high  schools  preparing  for  college  or  to  a  like 
period  in  trade  or  manual  training  high  schools. 

"  It  is  this  principle  which  will  have  to  receive  more 
consideration  in  the  future,  whether  it  comes  through  the 
plan  involved  in  the  somewhat  precarious  chances  of  the 
proposed  charter  or  whether  it  is  attained  in  a  more  grad- 
ual manner.  Industrial  and  commercial  education  has  now 
become  an  absolute  necessity.  There  is  absolutely  no  lack 
of  agreement  that  the  great  progress  made  by  the  German 
nation  recently  in  a  country  very  poor  in  natural  resources 
and  maritime  facilities,  is  due  more  than  anything  else  to 
its  marvelously  thorough  education  in  handicrafts  and 
business.  The  need  is  met  here  in  a  very  haphazard  and 
imperfect  way  at  present.  Some  great  manufacturing  con- 
cerns have  their  own  schools,  which  means  a  withdrawal  of 
boys  from  the  advantages  of  public  school  education  for 
the  sake  of  industrial  training  the  State  is  just  as  much 
bound  to  give  as  it  is  to  teach  Latin  or  Greek.  Many 
young  men  have  practically  no  training  at  all  which  di- 
rectly fits  them  for  what  they  will  have  to  do  in  life.  The 
effect  on  the  nation's  prosperity  is  bound  to  show  in  time. 
The  world's  business  which  is  a  subject  of  fierce  interna- 
tional competition,  is  not  done  by  imtrained  men.  There 
are  some  observers  who  take  the  matter  very  seriously. 
Mr.  Frank  A.  Vanderlip,  now  at  the  head  of  the  National 
City  Bank,  reports  with  something  like  alarm  that  in  recent 
international  exhibitions,  he  saw  no  American  manufactured 
goods  which  excelled  in  merit ;  they  were  superior  only 
because  made  more  cheaply  by  the  aid  of  automatic  ma- 
chinery.    Mr.  Vanderlip  preaches  the  need  of  industrial 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK        225 

training  in  schools,  and  of  financial  and  business  courses 
in  the  universities,  on  this  text. 

"  Obviously,  it  is  the  unskilled  man  who  in  time  of  busi- 
ness depression  swells  the  list  of  unemployed,  burdens 
charity  and  government  relief  and  lowers  the  whole  tone 
of  the  community. 

"  Now,  if  the  boys  and  girls  who  are  going  to  work  with 
^heir  hands,  the  great  majority  of  the  population  at  all 
times,  ought  to  be  educated  for  their  work,  the  education 
should  be  in  the  public  schools  and  should  begin  at  the 
earliest  possible  date.  For  such,  at  present,  there  is  a  piti- 
fully large  number  of  things  they  spend  time  in  learning 
which  they  will  proceed  immediately  and  necessarily  to  for- 
get. If  at  the  age  of  twelve,  when  the  rudiments  of  knowl- 
edge and  mental  discipline  have  been  attained,  they  could 
be  switched  into  a  course  of  education  designed  directly  to 
fit  their  needs  through  life,  the  benefit  to  them  and  to  the 
community  would  be  instantly  apparent,  and  the  provision 
for  the  classical  courses  of  study  would  not  be  harmed  by 
their  absence." 

The  following  was  sent  in  reply  to  a  letter  received  in 
May,  1908: 

June  4,  1908. 
Mr.  Henry  C.  Wright, 

Secretary,  City  Club  of  New  York, 
55  West  44th  Street,  New  York. 
Dear  Sir: 

In  reply  to  your  communication  of  May  29th,  asking  for 
my  opinion  on  the  so-called  "  Six-and-six "  plan  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  J.  Edward  Swanstrom,  I  submit  the  follow- 
ing: 

I  myself  and  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers,  of  which  I  am  president,  heartily  endorse  Mr. 
Swanstrom's  plan  in  so  far  as  it  establishes  the  principle 
that  the  positions  in  the  school  department  should  be  care- 
fully graded,  that  one  salary  should  be  attached  to  each 
grade  of  position,  and  then  that  the  person  occupying  any 
of  these  positions  should  receive  the  salary  attached  to  the 
position,  regardless  of  sex. 


226         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

I  agree  with  the  general  opinion  that  our  High  School 
Course  as  at  present  planned  and  conducted  is  practically 
a  failure,  and  I  would  welcome  any  change  that  would  tend 
to  keep  more  of  the  600,000  pupils  attending  our  public 
schools  in  school  until  they  have  completed  some  so-called 
High  School  Course. 

It  may  be  that  what  may  seem  to  be  a  trifling  expense, 
viz:  the  weekly  carfare  and  luncheon  account  necessary 
when  pupils  have  to  travel  long  distances  to  High  Schools, 
is  keeping  quite  an  appreciable  number  of  pupils  from  con- 
tinuing their  education.  Mr.  Swanstrom's  plan  would,  to 
a  large  extent,  overcome  this  objection, — if  it  be  one — since 
the  beginning  years  of  the  secondary  course  would  be  car- 
ried on  in  various  elementary  school  buildings  more  con- 
venient to  the  pupils  of  the  various  neighborhoods.  I  think 
there  is  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  anyone  who  has  given  much 
thought  to  the  subject  that  many  pupils,  both  boys  and 
girls,  would  remain  longer  in  High  School  if  they  found  it 
possible  to  carry  on  their  work  which  would  fit  them  for 
business  or  industrial  life,  and  did  not — as  they  now  do  in 
a  great  majority  of  cases — find  themselves  compelled  to 
follow  a  course  designed  especially  to  fit  pupils  for  college. 

I  have  never  suggested  or  requested  that  men  be  confined 
to  any  particular  grades  in  our  schools.  I  have  said  and  I 
do  say  that  the  Elementary  Schools,  even  as  constituted  to- 
day, can  be  splendidly  managed  without  any  men  teachers. 
In  proof  of  this  assertion,  I  refer  to  Public  Schools,  Nos. 
3,  II,  and  44,  Brooklyn,  under  my  own  supervision,  as 
schools  having  no  men  teachers,  and  yet  ranking,  as  they 
have  ranked  for  many  years,  among  the  best  schools  in  the 
city.  I  agree,  however,  that  men  are  least  desirable  in  the 
lower  grades  of  the  elementary  schools.  But  in  any  case, 
I  believe  that  the  city  is  always  able  to  do  justice,  and  that 
justice  in  the  salary  schedules  will  not  prevail  until  people 
occupying  the  same  position,  under  the  same  restrictions 
and  requirements,  receive  the  same  pay. 

Though  I  have  not  had  time  to  make  even  an  approxi- 
mate estimate  of  the  cost  of  establishing  Mr.  Swanstrom's 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        227 

plan,  I  know  that  it  would  be  more  expensive  than  the  adop- 
tion of  the  schedules  submitted  by  our  Association.  The 
schedules  suggested  by  Mr.  Swanstrom  have  the  same  mini- 
mum as  ours, — $720,  and  the  same  maximum  within  $15, 
his  being  $1620,  and  our  $1635.  There  is  a  difference  in 
the  increment,  however, — Mr.  Swanstrom's  being  $75,  and 
ours  $105,  which  is  the  present  increment  for  male  teachers 
in  the  lower  grades  of  the  elementary  schools.  His  bonus 
of  $120  for  boys  is  the  same  as  that  suggested  by  us.  His 
minimums  for  heads  of  department  and  principals  of  ele- 
mentary schools  are  the  same  as  in  our  schedules.  There- 
fore the  great  mass  of  teachers  would  be  paid  under  Mr. 
Swanstrom's  plan  very  nearly  the  same  salaries  as  were  in- 
corporated in  our  original  "  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  but  the  salaries 
suggested  in  the  high  school  are  higher  than  those  which 
we  asked  for.  I  therefore  must  object  to  the  statement  that 
the  "  Six-and-six  "  plan  will  be  a  lighter  burden  for  the 
taxpayers  than  the  plan  proposed  by  the  Interborough  As- 
sociation of  Women  Teachers. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  auditor  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion prepared  a  detailed  estimate  "  which  shows  that  to 
equalize  the  salaries  of  the  sexes  on  the  basis  of  the  salaries 
paid  to  men  teachers  will  increase  the  budget  of  the  Board 
of  Education  by  the  amount  of  $9,100,000  a  year  " ;  it  is 
also  true  that  the  women  teachers  at  no  time  asked  that  the 
salaries  for  teachers  in  the  grades  of  the  first  six  years 
be  increased  to  the  salaries  paid  by  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, but  not  required  by  the  Davis  Law,  to  the  male  teachers 
in  grades  of  the  first  six  years.  »We  believe  that  the  adop- 
tion of  the  salary  now  paid  to  the  men  in  those  years,  from 
the  first  year  through  the  eighth  year  of  experience,  would 
form  an  equitable  and  satisfactory  schedule  for  all  teachers 
in  those  grades.  In  this  connection  we  do  not  acknowledge 
the  criticism  that  we  were  thus  reducing  the  salaries  of  men 
teachers  as  a  just  one,  because  while  any  male  teachers  in 
those  years  receiving  more  than  $1635  could  not  have  their 
salaries  reduced,  all  male  teachers  in  those  grades  not  yet 
receiving  the  $1635  would  be  free  to  seek  promotion  into 
grades  where  the  higher  salaries  could  be  obtained  under 


228         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  State  Law,  and  the  beginner  would  have  eight  years  in 
which  to  seek  and  obtain  such  promotion. 

In  conclusion,  while  I  cannot  speak  formally  for  the 
12,000  women  teachers  in  my  Association,  I  have  every 
ireason  to  believe  that  they  would  agree  with  me  in  ap- 
proving on  the  whole  Mr.  J.  Edward  Swanstrom's  new 
plan  for  schools. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Grace  C.  Strachan, 

President,  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation of  Women  Teachers. 


CHAPTER   XX 

GLEDHILL-FOLEY   BILL 

We  deferred  an  appeal  to  the  Legislature  of  1909  until 
the  fate  of  the  report  of  the  Charter  Revision  Commission, 
of  which  William  M.  Ivins  was  chairman,  had  been  settled. 
This  report,  while  making  no  reference  to  salaries  in  the 
chapter  on  Education,  elsewhere  provided  for  "  like  sal- 
aries "  for  "  like  positions."  Early  in  April  we  were  defi- 
nitely informed  that  the  "  Ivins  Charter "  would  not  pass. 
Then  we  prepared  a  bill  containing  the  schedules  included 
in  the  report  of  the  Conciliation  Committee  and  also  a 
clause  restoring  the  "  fourth  mill."  This  was  introduced 
by  Senator  Reuben  L.  Gledhill,  Republican,  of  Kings,  and 
Assemblyman  James  A.  Foley,  Democrat,  of  New  York, 
and  so  became  known  as  the  "  Gledhill-Foley "  bill.  It 
passed  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  38  to  3,  and  the  Assembly, 
126  to  14.  It  was  vetoed  by  Mayor  McClellan  after  a  hear- 
ing on  May  11,  1909,  and  as  the  Legislature  had  then  ad- 
journed, it  could  not  be  re-passed.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  only  6  of  the  86  members  of  the  Legislature  from  New 
York  voted  against  the  bill. 

It  was  opposed  by  practically  the  same  people  with  prac- 
tically the  same  arguments  as  the  White  Bill  of  1907. 

The  Board  of  Education's  meeting  hastily  called  as  shown 
by  the  Globe,  May  6,  1909: 

"  Last  Monday  the  by-law  committee  of  the  Board  drew 
up  a  report  in  opposition  to  the  bill,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
a  special  meeting  should  be  held  at  4.30  o'clock  this  after- 
noon to  adopt  it. 

"  Whether  or  not  it  was  because  of  fear  of  opposition  to 
the  report  or  whether  or  not  it  was  to  prevent  the  women 
teachers  from  learning  of  the  contemplated  action  and  look- 
ing to  forestall  it,  has  not  been  disclosed,  but  it  is  known 

229 


230         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

that  it  was  agreed  to  keep  secret  as  long  as  possible  the 
fact  that  the  meeting  was  to  be  held.  The  notices  of  the 
meeting  were  not  sent  out  until  yesterday,  many  of  the  com- 
missioners not  receiving  them  until  this  morning.  A  public 
announcement  of  the  meeting  was  not  made.  So  well  were 
the  plans  laid  that  those  who  are  directing  the  fight  upon  the 
bill  do  not  anticipate  any  opposition  to  the  report  to-day." 

And  the  Glohe  of  May  7,  1909,  said : 

"  Without  any  discussion,  the  Board  of  Education  at  a 
special  meeting  held  yesterday  adopted  resolutions  con- 
demning the  teachers'  salary  bill  now  before  the  mayor  as 
revolutionary  and  detrimental  to  the  schools,  and  asking 
the  mayor  to  veto  it. 

"  As  told  in  The  Globe  yesterday  it  had  been  decided  last 
Monday  to  hold  the  meeting,  but  the  decision  was  kept  a 
secret  and  few  of  the  members  were  notified  until  yester- 
day morning.  Everything  had  been  carefully  planned  and 
was  carried  out  without  a  hitch,  although  the  members  had 
to  wait  until  long  after  five  o'clock  to  get  a  quorum.  The 
telephone  was  called  into  requisition  and  the  desired  mem- 
bers were  secured.    Twenty-seven  were  present. 

"  They  include  Messrs.  Aldcrofft,  Barrett,  Coudert, 
Bruce,  De  Laney,  Dresser,  Cunnion,  Ferris,  Francolini, 
Greene,  Higgins,  Hallick,  Katzenberg,  Kanzler,  Lazansky, 
May,  Man,  McCafiferty,  Harrison,  McDonald,  O'Donohue, 
Sherman,  A.  Stern,  J.  E.  Sullivan,  Wilsey,  Wingate,  and 
Winthrop.  When  the  motion  to  adopt  the  report  was  put 
there  was  a  division.  Probably  six  or  eight  members  op- 
posed it,  leaving  less  than  a  majority  of  the  entire  board  in 
favor  of  it.  President  Winthrop  declared  the  report 
adopted." 

The  Board  in  its  report  of  disapproval,  said :  "  An  analy- 
sis of  said  bill  shows  that  it  contains  thirty  different  sched- 
ules of  salaries  for  members  of  the  supervising  and  teach- 
ing staff  in  elementary  schools,  and  nine  schedules  for 
members  of  the  supervising  and  teaching  staff  in  high  and 
training  schools."  (Extract  from  report  of  Committee  on 
By-Laws  and  Legislation.) 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        231 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  said  bill  contains  only  four  dif- 
ferent schedules  for  elementary  schools  as  at  present  or- 
ganized, with  specific  "  bonuses  "  for  teachers  of  "  mixed  " 
and  "  boys' "  classes  and  schools ;  while  it  contains  only 
four  schedules  for  high  and  training  schools,  with  an  ad- 
dition of  $150  in  mixed  schools  and  $30  in  boys'  schools. 

The  apparent  increase  in  the  number  of  schedules  is 
really  an  increase  in  the  number  of  "  bonuses."  The  pres- 
ent schedules  provide  a  bonus  of  $60  per  annum  for  female 
teacher  of  mixed  boys'  classes. 

What  the  Board  makes  to  appear  like  eight  different 
schedules  for  grades  below  7A,  is  really  one  schedule — ■ 
$720  to  $1620,  with  bonuses  as  follows: 

Kng.  I A — 2B  Mixed,  no  bonus;  lA — 2B  Boys,  $60; 
3A— 4B  Mixed,  $60;  3A — ^4B  Boys,  $132;  5A — 6B  Mixed, 
^72;  5A— 6B  Boys,  $180. 

Our  present  schedules  give  a  principal  or  an  assistant  to 
principal  of  an  all  girls'  school  the  same  salary  as  a  prin- 
cipal or  an  assistant  to  principal  of  a  mixed  or  a  boys'  school. 
Now  it  is  well  known  that  it  is  more  difficult  to  manage  a 
boys'  school  than  a  girls'  school:  it  is  harder  (a)  to  keep 
the  classes  all  supplied  with  good  teachers,  (b)  to  keep 
the  buildings  and  playgrounds  in  good  condition,  (c)  to 
maintain  discipline.  And  so  the  Conciliation  Committee 
decided  to  extend  the  "  bonus "  policy  established  by  the 
Davis  Law  for  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools,  all 
through  the  system.  This  is  indicated  in  their  schedules 
which  follow: 


Assistant  to  Principal  Supervising  Grades  of  the  First  Six 

Years 

(Increment,  $150) 

Girls' 
Year  School 

I    $1,800 

3  2,100 


Mixed 

Boys' 

School 

School 

$1,950 

$2,100 

2,250 

2,400 

232         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


Principal  of  at  least  Twenty  Classes  in  Grades  of  the  First 

Six  Years 


(Increment,  $250) 


Year 
I    . . . 

4  ... 


Girls' 

Mixed 

Boys' 

School 

School 

School 

.$2,450 

$2,600 

$2,750 

.    3>20O 

3.350 

3.500 

Assistant  to  Principal  Supervising  in  Grades  of  the  Seventh 
and  Eighth  Years 

(Increment,  $150) 


Year 
I  . . . 
3  V 


Girls' 

Mixed 

Boys' 

School 

School 

School 

.$1,950 
.,  2,250 

$2,100 

$2,250 
2,550 

2,400 

Principal  Flaving  Tzvcnty-Five  or  more  Teachers  in  the 
Grades  of  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  Years 

(Increment,  $250.) 

Girls'  Mixed  Boys' 

Year                                             School  School  School 

I    $2,700  $2,850  $3,000 

4  3450  3>6oo          3,750 

In  our  brief  to  Mayor  McClellan  on  Gledhill-Foley  bill, 
we  said :  "  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr.  Stern  intimated  by  their 
remarks  on  variations  in  salaries  of  teachers  according  to 
whether  they  taught  girls'  mixed,  or  boys'  classes,  and  on 
variations  in  the  salaries  of  principals  according  to  the 
number  of  classes  supervised,  that  such  bases  of  variation 
in  salaries  would  be  an  innovation.  We  respectfully  sub- 
mit that  the  present  charter  of  this  city  (See  Sec.  1091) 
and  the  By-laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  (See  Sec.  65, 
sub-division  8,  "  Principals  of  schools  of  not  less  than  /<? 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        233 

classes — ,"  "A  principal  of  a  school  with  a  high  school 
department,  having  supervision  of  not  less  than  25  teachers 
in  the  aggregate  (elementary  and  high)  shall  receive,  in 
addition  to  the  salary  provided  in  Schedule  I,  the  sum  of 
$500  per  annum  " ;  sub-division  9,  "  Teachers  in  charge  of 
schools  of  the  fourth  order  (less  than  12  classes  but  not 
less  than  6  classes," — "  less  than  6  classes  " ;  sub-division 
14  (a)  "  A  principal  of  a  high  school  having  supervision 
of  not  less  than  25  teachers, — "  (b)  "  A  principal  of  a  high 
school  having  supervision  of  less  than  25  teachers " ;  and 
sub-division  11,  "A  female  teacher  of  a  boys'  class,  or 
of  a  mixed  class  as  defined  in  sub-division  i  of  this  sec- 
tion, shall  receive  the  sum  of  $60  per  annum  in  addition, 
etc.")  prove  that  it  is  the  settled  policy  of  the  Board 
of  Education  to  pay  principals  according  to  number  of 
-classes,  and  to  pay  teachers  of  mixed  and  boys'  classes 
higher  salaries  than  teachers  of  girls'  classes.  It  therefore 
seems  unfair  to  charge  that  this  bill  in  continuing  this 
policy  will  cause  more  political  scrambling  for  promotion 
than  there  is  now. 

"It  is  charged  by  some  that  Senate  Bill  1210  does  not 
provide  *  Equal  Pay '  and  by  others  that  it  provides  more 
than  '  Equal  Pay.'  We  have  found  the  spirit  of  our  cam- 
paign embodied  most  tersely  in  the  expression  '  Equal  Pay 
for  Equal  Work  " ;  but  what  we  are  actually  seeking  is 
"Salary  for  position  without  regard  to  the  sex  of  the  in- 
cumbent."  The  Gledhill-Foley  schedules  are  based  on  this 
principle. 

"  This  bill  has  been  approved  by : 

(i)  The  Interborough  Association  of  New  York,  com- 
prising over  I2,t)00  members; 

(2)  The  New  York  City  Teachers'  Association,  con- 
sisting of  thousands  of  men  and  women  teachers,  princi- 
pals, and  superintendents ; 

(3)  The  Association  of  Women  Principals  of  the  City 
of  New  York ; 

(4)  The  Association  of  Assistants  to  Principals,  Brook- 
lyn; 

(5)  The  Class  Teachers'  Association. 


234         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

It  has  been  endorsed  by 

(i)  The  Brownsville  Taxpayers'  Association; 

(2)  The  Central  Flatbush  Taxpayers'  Association; 

(3)  The  Central  Federated  Union,  representing  over 
200,000  voters; 

(4)  The  Central  Labor  Union,  representing  many  thou- 
sands ; 

(5)  The  City  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs; 

(6)  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  individual  taxpayers; 

(7)  Scores  of  firms  and  business  houses. 

"  But  above  and  beyond  all  in  importance,  unless  we  deny 
our  own  political  institutions  and  principles,  must  we  value 
the  endorsement  given  by  The  People  through  their  regu- 
larly elected  representatives  in  our  State  Legislature,  after 
three  years  of  public  agitation  on  the  question  of  the  dis- 
crimination against  our  women  teachers. 

"  Opposed  to  this  vast  majority  striving  to  give  the 
women  teachers  the  relief  they  seek  are  a  few  men  who 
represent  only  themselves  as  individuals,  or  the  minority 
that  constitutes  a  majority  vote  at  meetings  of  a  few  self- 
constituted  organizations,  not  authorized  to  represent  any 
taxpayers  but  themselves. 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  fur- 
thermore asks  you  to  consider  the  trustworthiness  of  the 
statements  made  by  Mr.  Abraham  Stern,  representing  the 
Board  of  Education  in  opposing  this  bill ;  because  ten  years 
ago  in  opposing  the  bill  which  became  the  "  Davis  Law," 
he  claimed  that  the  cost  of  said  bill  would  be  $26,000,000 — • 
it  cost  about  Hve  million.  He  claimed  that  it  was  revolu- 
tionary, arbitrary,  dangerous ;  and  he  characterizes  Senate 
Bill  1210  in  the  same  way.  Yet  after  ten  years'  experience 
of  the  Davis  Law  he  and  the  other  members  of  the  Board 
of  Education  are  unanimous  in  their  appeal  for  the  reten- 
tion of  the  Davis  Law.  Is  it  not  fair  to  believe  that  if  you 
sign  our  bill  and  it  becomes  law,  that  its  beneficent  effects 
on  our  school  system  will  be  such  as  to  cause  a  similar 
change  of  heart  ? 

"  We  do  not  admit  that  the  number  of  basic  schedules 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         235 

is  increased  by  the  new  law,  while  admitting  that  basing 
the  salaries  on  the  sex  of  the  pupils  taught  instead  of  on 
the  sex  of  the  teacher,  has  increased  the  number  of  *  bo- 
nuses '  for  mixed  and  boys'  classes. 

"  It  is  true  to-day  that  in  Brooklyn  nearly  all  of  the  chil- 
dren in  the  first  year  of  high  school,  which  is  the  9th  year 
in  this  12-year  course,  are  housed  in  elementary  school 
buildings.  We  believe  that  the  children  will  be  greatly 
benefited  by  having  the  course  of  study  so  readjusted  as 
to  make  an  intermediate  or  sub-high  school  for  children  of 
the  7th,  8th,  and  9th  years,  this  intermediate  or  sub-high 
school  being,  in  many  cases,  vocational  or  trade,  in  others 
commercial,  and  in  others  purely  literary ;  thus  leaving  the 
last  three  years  of  the  twelve  for  a  true  high  school  course 
to  be  followed  by  such  pupils  as  intend  to  go  on  to  college 
or  go  on  to  complete  their  studies  in  the  profession  or  call- 
ing chosen.  It  is  a  matter  of  general  criticism  that  the  pres- 
ent course  of  study  is  prepared  for  those  who  are  to  enter 
college,  although  over  95  per  cent  of  the  children  who  are 
taught  under  it  never  even  enter  high  school. 

"  However,  though  the  Committee  was  strongly  in  favor 
of  the  Six-and-Three-and-Three  plan,  variously  known  as 
the  '  Swanstrom  Plan,'  and  the  '  City  Club  Plan,'  and  the 
*  Six-and-Six  Plan,'  there  is  nothing  in  the  bill  which  forces 
any  such  reorganization  on  the  Board  of  Education.  True, 
there  is  a  schedule  of  salaries  provided  for  schools,  con- 
sisting of  grades  of  the  7th,  8th  and  9th  years,  but  until 
such  schools  are  established,  such  schedule  of  salaries  is 
inactive. 

'*  Still,  there  is  no  law  or  principle  that  makes  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  schedules  undesirable.  The  intimation 
made  by  both  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr,  Stern,  that  the  pro- 
posed bill  would  compel  the  Board  of  Education  to  reorgan- 
ize the  school  system  is  not  borne  out  by  fact.  There  are 
at  present  girls'  schools,  mixed  schools,  and  boys'  schools. 
It  is  true  that  under  the  present  law,  principals  and  assist- 
ants to  principals  and  teachers  are  paid  under  various  '  male' 
and  *  female '  schedules,  i.e.,  schedules  varying  according 
to  the  sex  of  the  principal,  assistant  to  principal  and  teacher 


236         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

— e.g.,  Miss  O'C,  principal  of  a  school  of  60  classes  of  boys 
and  girls  receives  $1000  less  a  year  than  Mr.  O'M,  princi- 
pal of  a  school  of  12  classes,  while  the  bill  under  discussion 
proposed  to  pay  said  teachers  and  supervisors  according  to 
the  sex  of  the  pupils  taught  and  supervised,  and  so  provides 
bonuses  for  those  in  mixed  and  boys'  schools. 

"  In  making  this  readjustment,  the  Board  of  Education 
would  decide  what  constitutes  a  mixed  school,  just  as  it 
has  decided  that  a  '  mixed  class '  for  purposes  of  bonus 
salary  must  have  40%  of  boys  on  register. 

"This  bill  is  objected  to  on  the  ground  that  it  is  manda- 
tory. It  is  true  that  the  bill  is  mandatory,  but  how,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  could  it  be  otherwise?  Do  we  expect 
the  child  of  Irish  parents  to  be  Hindoos,  for  instance?  Do 
we  look  for  sweet  apples  on  a  sour  apple  tree?  Or,  as  Sena- 
tor McCarren  has  put  it :  *  If  you  wanted  to  mend  a  hole 
in  a  granite  wall,  you  would  not  use  a  Charlotte  Russe.' 
So,  we  admit  that  these  provisions  that  we  are  asking  you 
to  approve  as  an  amendment  to  the  '  Davis  Law,'  are  manda- 
tory. But  we  beg  you  not  to  consider  this  amendment  as 
you  would  original  mandatory  legislation,  but  as  an  amend- 
ment to  mandatory  legislation  over  which  you  had  no  con- 
trol. 

"  Likewise,  in  considering  the  *  four-mill '  provision,  we 
appeal  to  you  to  remember  that 

(i)  The  Board  of  Education  prays  that  the  present  man- 
datory provisions  in  the  city  charter,  fixing  salaries  and  a 
minimum  tax  rate,  be  continued ; 

(2)  All  the  teachers  unite  in  asking  for  the  restoration 
of  the  fourth  mill ; 

(3)  Over  90% — all  the  women  teachers  and  many  of 
the  men  teachers — approve  the  Gledhill-Foley  Teachers' 
bill; 

(4)  Fully  90%  (165  out  of  182)  of  the  members  elected 
to  the  State  Legislature  by  the  voters  of  this  city,  after 
three  years  of  public  agitation  on  the  question,  voted  in 
favor  of  this  bill ; 

(5)  We  are  supporters  and  defenders  of  a  government 
in  which  "  the  majority  "  rules ; 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         237 

And  therefore,  we  pray  that  you  will  agree  with  us  that 
respect  for  "Home  Rule,"  "Fair  Play,"  and  "The  Ma- 
jority" demands  your  approval  of  this  bill. 

GRACE  C.  STRACHAN,  President. 

But — the  Mayor  did  veto  the  bill.  He  however,  in  his 
veto  message  this  time  recognized  the  importance  of  the 
measure  by  promising  to  appoint  a  commission  to  investi- 
gate the  question  of  teachers'  salaries.  He  later  indicated 
that  he  realized  that  the  problem  was  one  worthy  of  serious 
and  dignified  consideration,  by  naming  as  members  of  such 
commission,  Hon.  Joseph  H.  Choate,  ex-Ambassador  to 
Great  Britain ;  Hon.  William  C.  Brown,  president,  New 
York  Central  Railroad,  and  Professor  John  Bates  Clark, 
of  Columbia  University.  The  first  named  declined  the  ap- 
pointment and  the  second  resigned  after  one  meeting  be- 
cause he  could  not  spare  the  time  he  believed  such  an  in- 
vestigation would  require.  Their  places  were  filled  by  the 
appointment  of  Joseph  M.  Schwab,  president  of  the  North 
German  Lloyd  Steamship  Company,  New  York,  and  Charles 
Hallam  Keep,  president  of  the  Knockerbocker  Trust  Com- 
pany. The  report  submitted  by  this  commission  to  Mayor 
McClellan  just  prior  to  the  close  of  his  term  of  office  stated 
that  they  had  not  been  able  on  account  of  lack  of  time,  to 
make  such  an  investigation  as  would  justify  a  definite  re- 
port. They  made  several  alternative  suggestions  which 
added  nothing  to  the  previous  discussions  and  arguments 
connected  with  the  great  struggle  of  the  women  teachers. 

The  matters  to  be  investigated  by  the  special  commission 
are  explained  by  the  mayor  as  follows: 

"  First,  the  average  rates  of  living  of  teachers,  both  male 
and  female,  in  this  city,  and  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  the 
general  trend  of  responsibilities  which  they  have  to  meet  on 
the  salary  oflFered  to  them  by  this  city. 

"  Second,  to  compare,  as  near  as  possible,  the  salary  rates 
in  other  cities  with  those  oflFered  to  teachers  in  this  city. 

"  Third,  to  investigate  and  accurately  determine  what 
increase  to  the  budget  such  recommendations  as  they  may 
deem  proper  to  submit  will  make." 


238         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

The  New  York  World,  of  May  29,  1909,  said  the  follow- 
ing editorially: 

"  New  York's  public  school  teachers  naturally  object  to 
the  proposed  public  inquiry  into  the  method  and  the  cost 
of  their  living.  We  have  gone  to  great  lengths  in  our  soci- 
ological bookkeeping,  but  always  it  has  been  in  the  wrong 
direction.  We  invade  the  privacy  of  the  self-respecting 
poor  on  the  slightest  provocation.  Admonished  on  every 
hand  to  look  after  certain  elements  at  the  other  end  of  the 
social  scale,  we  do  nothing. 

"  The  worst  possible  use  of  publicity  is  to  expose  respect- 
able poverty  or  modest  thrift  to  the  gaze  of  the  multitude. 
The  best  possible  use  of  publicity  is  to  throw  daylight  upon 
all  those  supplicants  who,  aided  by  favoring  laws,  are  reap- 
ing where  they  have  not  sown. 

"  Every  beneficiary  of  privilege  should  be  held  to  a  strict 
public  accounting,  but  none  is  exacted  of  him.  Every  self- 
supporting  American  is  entitled  to  exemption  from  the  in- 
quisitorial activities  of  students,  theorists  and  meddlers, 
but  he  alone  is  probed,  measured  and  tabulated." 

Democracy,  of  same  date,  commented  as  follows  in  its 
leading  editorial: 

"  The  equal  pay  bill  of  the  school  teachers  has  been  vetoed 
by  Mayor  McClellan,  but  the  teachers  have  the  encourage- 
ment of  knowing  that  their  battle  is  further  advanced  than 
it  ever  was  before.  Indeed,  it  has  progressed  so  far  that 
they  will,  without  question,  win  the  next  battle,  which  will 
be  next  year.  They  cannot  fail  again.  A  commission 
is  to  be  named  to  investigate  the  average  rate  of  compensa- 
tion received  by  teachers  in  other  communities  and  the  cost 
of  living.  The  results  of  this  investigation  will  undoubtedly 
show  that  the  teachers  here  are  underpaid,  and  that  at  the 
end  of  the  year  they  are  worse  off  than  the  same  class  of 
public  workers  in  other  sections  of  the  country.  The 
women  school  teachers  are  educated  and  refined  women. 
They  have  been  accustomed  to  refined  surroundings.  And 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  their  environment  should  be 
refined,  for  if  this  were  not  so,  their  usefulness  as  teachers 
of  the  young  would  lose  greatly  in  value.     Clothing,  food 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK        239 

and  rent  are  dearer  in  this  city  than  in  any  other  place  in 
the  world.  And  amusements  and  luxuries  are  dearer  too, 
and  every  rational  human  being  knows  the  absolute  need  of 
amusement  and  luxuries.  Any  person  receiving  only  the 
necessaries  of  life  is  soon  reduced  to  the  level  of  beasts. 
They  fail  mentally  and  physically.  They  retrograde  in- 
stead of  advancing.  In  nearly  every  other  calling  a  trade 
or  a  profession  is  learned,  and  then  the  work  of  study,  save 
the  study  of  experience,  is  over.  But  a  teacher  has  to  keep 
on  studying  and  learning.  She  cannot  say  that  her  pro- 
fession is  learned,  for  it  is  never  mastered.  No  matter  how 
far  ahead  she  goes  there  is  still  more  ground  to  traverse. 
She  is  not  permitted  to  wait  and  rest,  for  there  is  always 
a  steady  pushing  from  the  rear,  and  she  has  to  fight  to  keep 
in  the  lead  or  she  will  fall  hopelessly  behind.  Besides  study- 
ing books  she  has  to  study  human  nature.  She  must  be 
patient,  and  tender,  thoughtful  and  forbearing.  She  has  no 
time  for  the  nursing  of  her  own  woes,  for  she  is  always 
attending  to  the  woes  of  others.  There  is  no  chance  on 
earth  for  her  to  get  more  than  she  earns,  and  none  of  our 
public  men  need  fear  that  she  will  be  overpaid.  But  all  of 
our  public  men,  and  every  man  of  public  spirit  ought  to  do 
what  he  can  to  see  that  she  is  not  underpaid.  We  are  sure 
that  the  commission  to  be  named  by  the  Mayor  will  be  an 
excellent  commission,  and  that  its  report  will  end  in  giving 
the  women  teachers  the  same  pay  as  that  received  by  the 
men  teachers,  and  this  will  be  done,  we  believe,  without 
troubling  the  legislature." 

And  again  on  June  12,  IQ08: 

"  Miss  Smith  may  be  able  to  live  as  well  as  she  wants  on 
ten  dollars  a  week,  while  Miss  Jones  would  require  twice 
as  much  to  secure  only  those  things  which  she  would  con- 
sider absolutely  necessary.  Nor  does  a  teacher's  responsi- 
bilities enter  into  this  subject  any  more  than  do  the  ques- 
tions of  charity,  sympathy,  or  love.  The  whole  question  is 
purely  a  business  one.  To  say  that  a  person  ought  only  to 
receive  enough  compensation  to  enable  him  to  live  is  ab- 


240         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

surd.  He  is  entitled  to  the  sum  he  earns  whether  it  be 
ten  dollars  a  week  or  a  thousand  dollars.  Do  the  women 
teachers  labor  as  long  and  as  truthfully  as  the  men?  Are 
they  as  necessary  in  the  schools  as  the  men?  Would  the 
city  be  better  off  if  there  were  no  women  teachers?  These, 
it  seems  to  us,  are  the  salient  points. 

"  And  if  these  questions  are  answered  favorably  to  the 
women,  then  comes  the  question  of  compensation.  And 
it  would  be  impossible  to  thresh  out  this  question  carefully 
enough  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  grain  without  also 
discovering  whether  the  compensation  of  the  men  teachers 
is  just.  If  this  is  answered  in  the  affirmative,  then  the 
question  whether  the  women  teachers  ought  to  receive  the 
same  pay  as  the  men,  for  the  same  work  answers  itself. 
And  the  result  would  be  that  when  the  Board  of  Estimate 
meets  to  consider  the  budget  of  1910,  the  school  appropria- 
tion will  be  big  enough  to  place  the  women  on  the  same 
plane  as  the  men  in  the  matter  of  pay." 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE     SOMERS    RESOLUTION 

On  December  22,  1909,  Commissioner  Arthur  S.  Somers, 
presented  the  following  resolution  in  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion: 

"  Resolved,  That  it  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on  By- 
Laws  and  Legislation  to  consider  the  advisability  of 
amending  the  By-Laws  as  follows: 

"  That  Section  65  of  the  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation be  amended  so  as  to  provide  but  one  salary  for  one 
and  the  same  position,  except  that  the  teachers  and  super- 
visors of  boys  may  receive  an  additional  salary  or  bonus 
not  to  exceed  $180; 

"  Resolved,  That  it  also  be  referred  to  said  Committee 
to  consider  the  advisability  of  amending  said  section  in  the 
following  manner: 

"  That  such  revised  schedules  be  put  into  effect  as  soon 
as  funds  sufficient  therefor  are  provided  by  the  Board  of 
Estimate  and  Apportionment,  and  that  pending  full  finan- 
cial ability,  the  increases  in  women  teachers'  salaries  be 
paid  in  annual  instalments  which  shall  be  not  less  than 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  difference  between  the  maximum 
salaries  now  fixed  for  men  and  the  maximum  salaries  now 
fixed  for  women  occupying  the  same  position,  except  that 
for  the  year  1910  there  shall  be  a  flat  increase  of  not  less 
than  $120  per  annum  for  all  women  teachers  below  the 
7 A  grade,  and  not  less  than  $120  for  all  women  teachers 
of  special  subjects." 

The  I.  A.  W.  T.  submitted  in  this  connection  the  fol- 
lowing : 

If  the  "Equal  Pay"  principle  is  recognized,  the  Inter- 
borough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  is  willing  that 

241 


242         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  increases  necessary  to  establish  this  principle  be  paid 
in  three  or  four  annual  instalments. 

To  establish  the  ''  Equal  Pay  "  principle  the  Board  of 
Education  would  need  to  classify  its  positions,  and  fix  but 
one  salary  for  each  class  of  position ;  except  that  teachers, 
assistants  to  principals,  principals  and  other  supervisory 
officers  of  boys  may  receive  an  additional  salary  or 
"  bonus,"  said  bonus  not  to  exceed  $i8o  for  teachers  in 
the  elementary  schools. 

Pending  adoption  of  "  Equal  Pay  "  schedules,  the  fol- 
lowing increases  are  suggested  as  the  first  instalment: 

ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 

A'^.  B. — The  numbers  of  principals,  assistants  to  princi- 
pals, and  teachers  indicated  below  are  those  submitted  to 
the  Board  of  Estimate,  October,  1909,  by  the  Board  of 
Education  for  the  year  1910. 

Increase  for  Women  Teachers  based  on  Twenty  Per  Cent. 

196  Principals,   ^,    ($3500-$250o),   *or  $200 $  39,200 

380  Assts.    to    Principals,   ^,    ($2400$  1600),   *or 

$160    60,800 

20  In  charge  of  Schools,  i,   ($2400-$  1600),  *or 

$160    3,200 

II  Senior  Teachers  in  Charge,  i,  ($2i6o-$i54o) 

♦or  $124 1,364 

607  $104,564 

♦A''.  B. — The  difference  between  the  present  maximums 
for  men  and  women. 

Present  Schedule  JIL 

739  Kindergarten. 
837  la  grade. 
1,024  lb  grade. 

Salaries  for  women  range  from  $600  to  $1240. 
Annual  increment,  $40. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        243 

860  2a  grade. 
962  2b  grade. 
881  3a  grade. 

Salaries   for  men  range   from  $900  to  $2160. 
Annual  increment,  $105. 
918  3b  grade. 

870  4a  grade. 

871  4b  grade. 
805  5a  grade. 

According  to  year  of  service,  limit:     12   for 
men,  16  for  women. 
777  5b  grade. 
611  6a  grade. 
565  6b  grade. 

It  is  suggested  that  maximum  in  these  grades 
be  $1635   for  boys'  classes  and  $1515  for  girls' 
classes,  to  apply  to  both  men  and: 
40  Miscellaneous   women   teachers; 
62  Ungraded; 
205  More  than  i  grade; 
65  C, 

Special  English  Class  to  Foreigners; 
90  D., 

Special  "  Working  Paper  Class  " ; 
361  E., 

Special  "  Over  Age  "  Children  Class. 


11.533 

11,533  teachers  scheduled  at  $120  equals  $1,383,960, 

All  Women  Teachers  under  present  Schedule  IV. 

550  7a  grade. 
437  7b  grade. 
363  8a  grade. 
25  Miscellaneous. 
9  More  than  i  grade. 

1,384 


244         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

1,384  Women  Teachers  under  present  schedule  IV  at  i, 
($2i6o-$i32o),  or  $168  equals  $232,512. 


Women  under  present  Schedule  V. 

298  8b  grade. 
9  More  than  i  grade. 
I  C. 
I  D. 
I  E. 
4  "  In  Excess." 


314 


314  under  present  schedule  V.,  at  ^,  ($2400-$  1440),  or 
$192  equals  $60,288. 


Total       607  Principals,   etc    $    104,564 

Total  11,533  Teachers,  Kgn.  to  6B,  etc 1,383,960 

Total     1,384  Teachers,  7a-8a,  etc 232,512 

Total       314  Teachers,  8b,  etc 60,288 

13,838  Elementary  School.     Total   $1,781,324 


HIGH    SCHOOLS 

Women 

2  (Lib.  asst.),  I,   ($i20o-$iooo),  or  $40 

10  (Oer.  asst.),  I,   ($i20o-$iooo),  or  $40 

10  (Lib.  asst.),  ^,  ($i200-$iooo),  or  $40. . 

29  (Jun.),  i,  (($i200-$iooo),  or  $40  ... 

570  (Asst),  i,  ($2400-$ 1 900),  or  $100 

21  (First  asst.),  i,  ($30oo-$25oo),  or  $100 


80 

400 

40c 

1,160 

57,000 

2,100 


642 


$61,140 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         245 


Women 
I 

3 
63 
13 

52 


TRAINING  SCHOOLS 

(Cler.  asst),  h  ($i20o-$iooo),  or  $40 
(Lib.  asst.),  ^,  ($i20o-$iooo),  or  $40 
(Model  Tr.),  i,  ($2400-$i5oo),  or  $180 
(Critic),  ^,  ($2400-$ 1 500),  or  $180  ... 
(Asst.),  i,  ($2400-$ 1 900),  or  $100 


8  (First),  ^,  ($3000-$25oo),  or  $100 


80 

120 

11,340 

2,340 

5,200 

800 


141 

Special  Teachers. 

Women 

39  (Music)  $1400 

52  (Drg.)  1400 

23  (P.  Trg.)  1200 

115  (Cook.)  1200 

62  (Sew.)  1200 

3  (Shop.)  1200 

6  (French)  1400 

27   (German)  1400 


$19,880 

Men 
$1600 
1600 
1600 


*2i6o 
1600 
1600 


2>27 

327  Special  Teachers  at  $120  equals  $39,240. 
About  450  Clerks  or  additional   Teachers   increase  25 
cents  per  day  for  194  days  of  1910  equals  $21,825. 

Additional  for  those  who  have  reached  Maximum  in 
Present  Schedules. 

180  Women  principals,  $200  additional $  36,000 

1,500  Kng. — 6B,  $120  additional 180,000 

912  7a-8a,  $168  additional  153,216 

340  8b,  192  additional 65,280 

160  Special,  etc.,  $120  additional 19,200 

13  Jun.,  $40  additional 520 

261  Asst.,  $100  additional 26,100 

10  First,  $100  additional 1,000 


3,376 


$481,316 


246         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


SUMMARY 

Based  on  20% 

196  Principals.     Total  increase  instalment, .  .$  39,200 

380  Asst.  to  Prin.     To  increase  instalment. .  60,800 

20  Asst.  in  Charge,  6  to  11  classes 3,200 

II  Teachers  in  Charge,  less  than  6  classes. .  1,364 
11,533  Teachers,     Kgn. — 6B    and    others    paid 

under  present  Schedule  III 1,383,960 

1,384  Teachers,     7a-7b-8a     and     others     paid 

under  present  Schedule  IV 232,512 

314  Teachers,  8b  and  others  paid  under  pres- 
ent Schedule  V 60,288 

642  Teachers,  High  Schools   61,140 

141  Teachers,  Training  School  for  Teachers.  19,880 

327  Teachers,  Special  Subjects 39,240 

450  Teachers,  Additional  or  Clerks  21,825 


15,398  $1,923,409 

If  possible  allow  3,376  having  reached  maxi- 
mum         481.316 

For  Principals,  teachers  and  others  to  fill  vacan- 
cies and  provide  for  increase  in  system   ....        95-275 


$2,500,000 
To  the  Board  of  Education ; 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  of 
the  City  of  New  York  respectfully  submits  the  following 
statements  in  connection  with  the  report  made  to  your 
Board  by  the  Committee  on  By-Laws  and  Legislation  at 
the  meeting  of  January  12,  1910,  on  the  resolution  offered 
by  Mr.  Somers,  December  22,   1909. 

The  report  referred  to  states  that  "  the  principle  of  Equal 
Pay  for  men  and  women  teachers  occupying  the  same  posi- 
tion is  the  principle  involved  in  the  first  of  the  resolutions 
offered  by  Mr.  Somers.  It  further  states  that  "  the  Board 
of  Education  disapproved  Senate  Bill  No.  893,"  the  so- 
called  "  Equal  Pay  "  or  "  White  Bill  "  on  March  22,  1907, 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        247 

and  that  on  May  6,  1909,  your  committee  presented  a  re- 
port in  opposition  to  Senate  Bill  No.  1210,  known  as  the 
"  Gledhill-Foley  Bill,"  which  provided  salaries  for  teach- 
ers in  various  grades  without  regard  to  sex,  which  report 
was  approved  by  the  Board  of  Education. 

Our  Association  admits  all  the  above  but  it  is  surprised 
at  the  following:  "  Your  Committee  is  aware  of  no  change 
in  the  situation  up  to  the  present  time  which  would  justify 
it  in  recommending  that  the  Board  reverse  the  action 
taken  by  it  on  the  occasions  above  referred  to." 

We  respectfully  submit  that  the  Committee  must  know 
that  since  May  6,  1909,  the  following  members  have  been 
appointed  to  the  Board  of  Education: 

Miss  Olivia  Leventritt, 

Mr.  Herman  A.  Metz, 

Mr.  Frank  L.  Polk, 

Mrs.  Helen  C.  Robbins, 

Mr.  John  Whalen, 

Mr.  Patrick  F.  McGowan, 

Mr.  Antonio  Pisani,  M.D., 

Mrs.  Alice  L.  Post, 

Mrs.  Christine  Towns. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  these  nine  new  members  have 
been  added  to  the  Board  and  that  there  are  still  two  vacan- 
cies, it  is  inconceivable  to  this  Association  that  the  Com- 
mittee on  By-Laws  and  Legislation  should  be  "  aware  of 
no  change  in  the  situation  up  to  the  present  time,  etc." 

We  submit  further,  that  at  the  meeting  of  May  6,  1909, 
at  which  the  so-called  "  Gledhill-Foley  Bill  "  was  disap- 
proved, there  was  not  a  majority  of  the  whole  Board  of 
Education  recorded  against  it.  Only  twenty-seven  Com- 
missioners answered  roll  call,  and  members  of  this  Associa- 
tion who  were  present  at  said  meeting  heard  several 
"  Noes  "  when  the  negative  vote  on  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  By-Laws  and  Legislation  was  called  for  by  the 
presiding  officer.  Besides,  the  meeting  of  May  6,  1909, 
was  not  a  regular  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Education,  but 
was  a  special  meeting,  the  notices  of  which  were  not  re- 
ceived by  some  members  until  the  very  day  of  the  meeting 


248  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

and  by  most  of  the  members  only  the  day  previous. 
Furthermore,  said  meeting  was  not  in  session  five  minutes, 
and  w^e  believe  that  many  of  the  members  of  the  Board 
of  Education  are  prepared  to  give  more  time  than  that  to 
the  consideration  of  this  vital  subject. 

In  contrast  to  such  hasty  action  as  the  above,  we  re- 
spectfully submit  that  during  the  past  three  years  the 
Senate,  the  Assembly,  the  Governor  of  the  State,  the 
Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  the  citizens  assembled 
in  various  Mass  Meetings,  have  given  several  hearings  on 
the  principle  involved  in  the  "  White  Bill,"  the  "  Gledhill- 
Foley  Bill "  and  the  resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Somers, 
and  in  no  case  has  the  hearing  been  shorter  than  two  hours. 
When  said  bills  have  come  before  either  house  of  the 
Legislature  for  final  decision,  the  vote  has  always  been  taken 
by  recording  each  individual  member's  vote  either  for  or 
against,  and  the  vote  has  always  followed  a  full  and  free 
discussion,  lasting  on  several  occasions  upwards  of  three 
hours.  In  contrast  to  an  attendance  of  2y  members  out 
of  a  board  of  46 — an  attendance  of  58.7  per  cent. —  was 
the  attendance  of  the  Assembly  Committee  on  Affairs  of 
Cities  at  the  hearing  on  the  "  White  Bill "  when  13  out 
of  a  committee  of  13  sat  throughout  a  hearing  lasting  three 
hours — 100  per  cent,  of  attendance. 

We  submit  also  that  in  disapproving  the  "  White  Bill," 
the  Board  of  Education  faced  a  complex  proposition,  be- 
cause beside  the  principle  of  salary  for  position  without 
regard  to  sex,  the  "  White  Bill "  involved  the  four-mill 
tax,  a  minimum  salary  of  $720,  a  minimum  annual  incre- 
ment of  $105  and  a  maximum  number  of  increments  of 
twelve.  A  similar  statement  is  tr'ue  of  its  action  on  the 
"  Gledhill-Foley  Bill,"  as  this  bill  involved  not  only  the 
same  salary  for  men  and  women  teachers  occupying  the 
same  position,  but  the  so-called  Six-and-Six  Plan,  and 
fixed  salaries  in  detail,  varying  for  girls',  mixed,  and  boys' 
schools. 

Therefore,  we  submit  that  the  Board  has  never  placed  it- 
self on  record  as  approving  or  disapproving  the  simple 
principle,  "  That  men  and  women  teachers  occupying  the 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        249 

same  position  shall  receive  the  same  pay";  and  we  there- 
fore beg  that  your  Board,  without  referring  the  said  pro- 
position to  any  Committee,  let  the  teachers  and  the  public 
generally  who  are  striving  to  have  this  principle  embodied 
in  all  the  salary  schedules  of  our  teachers,  know  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Board  of  Education  on  this  simple  proposition. 
Respectfully  submitted, 
The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers, 
Grace  C.  Strachan,  Isabel  A.  Ennis, 

President.  Secretary. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

DISCRIMINATIONS  OTHER   THAN    SALARY 

Since  we  began  "  agitating  "  for  Equal  Pay,  we  have 
experienced  discriminations  other  than  salary.  By  far  the 
most  unjust  of  these  is  that  connected  with  the  assignment 
and  promotion  of  teachers. 

In  one  school,  this  attitude  was  indulged  and  permitted 
to  such  an  extreme,  that  there  was  not  a  woman  teacher 
on  the  "  top  floor  "  although  the  classes  were  as  follows : 

Girls  Teacher 

i6         Joseph     

15         Robert     ■ 

12         Michael   

13         Pat  

14         Fred.   


Grade 

Boys 

8b. 

24 

8A. 

23 

7B. 

18 

7B, 

18 

7A. 

26 

7A. 

27 

13         Ernest     

Totals  136  83 

It  is  probable  that  if  this  school  had  been  located  in  an 
"  American  "  district,  the  parents  of  the  girls  would  have 
expressed  dissatisfaction ;  but  it  was  in  an  Italian  section 
and  the  parents  were  more  or  less  unacquainted  with  the 
language  and  Hfe  of  the  country.  So  the  principal  con- 
tinued to  carry  out  his  intention  as  expressed  to  one  of  the 
women  teachers,  "  I  would  put  up  the  most  incompetent 
man  before  I  would  put  you  up,"  until  our  association 
brought  the  facts  to  public  notice.  Finally  one  woman 
was  promoted.  Surely,  even  those  who  hold  that  men 
are  needed  for  "  growing  boys  "  will  not  hold  that  "  grow- 
ing girls  " — especially  girls  from  an  almost  tropical  clime 
— need  men  teachers  to  the  absolute  exclusion  of  women. 

250 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        251 

The  unfairness  that  consists  in  assigning  a  woman 
teacher  to  a  girls  class  in  a  department,  so  as  to  deprive 
her  of  the  bonus  of  $6o.cx),  though  her  program  makes 
her  teach  boys  a  large  portion  of  the  day,  promises  to  bring 
about  another  legal  suit  against  the  board.  On  this  point, 
the  Globe  recently  printed  a  letter  of  which  the  following 
is  a  part :  "  .  .  .  under  the  rules  of  the  board  a  teacher 
whose  class  has  more  than  40  per  cent,  boys  receives  $5  a 
month  extra  pay.  But  the  officials  have  decided  that  this 
bonus  shall  be  determined,  not  by  the  classes  taught,  but  by 
the  class  for  which  the  teacher  calls  the  roll.  By  separat- 
ing boys  and  girls  at  roll  call  a  few  teachers  keep  the 
register  for  all  the  boys  and  get  the  extra  pay  and  the 
others  lose  it,  even  though  during  the  rest  of  the  day  they 
may  devote  their  teaching  hours  wholly  to  boys'  classes. 

"  One  teacher  in  a  certain  school  has  for  four  years 
received  the  bonus  for  a  boys'  class.  She  taught  twenty- 
nine  of  the  thirty-two  class  periods  a  week,  and  last  year 
had  altogether  470  boys  and  510  girls.  Under  the  new 
schedule  she  is  given  a  girls'  class.  She  is  teaching  in  the 
classroom  thirty-one  full  periods  a  week,  and  has  a  total 
of  515  boys  and  460  girls.  She  loses  the  extra  pay,  as  do 
two  other  teachers,  simply  because  she  keeps  the  registry 
for  a  girls'  class,  though  her  teaching  hours  are  increased 
and  she  is  teaching  a  larger  proportion  of  boys  than  before. 
Two  of  the  four  teachers  in  this  school  now  in  charge  of 
boys  are  men.  Incidentally  (this  for  those  who  maintain 
that  boys  need  the  instruction  of  men),  one  of  these  men 
teaches  girls'  classes  more  than  one-half  his  time  each 
week,  and  has  more  girls  than  boys  in  his  total,  while  the 
other  has  each  week  eight  hours  respite  from  teaching, 
while  no  woman  teacher  has  more  than  two  hours  and 
some  only  forty  minutes  outside  the  classroom." 

The  editor  of  the  Globe  in  his  reply  to  the  above,  said: 
"  Such  a  plan  is  of  doubtful  legality.  The  teachers  who 
believe  that  they  are  being  deprived  of  the  bonus  illegally 
should  file  a  claim  for  it  with  the  By-Laws  Committee  of 
the  Board  of  Education.     The  charter  is  explicit.     It  says 


252         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

'  and  no  female  teacher  of  a  boys'  or  a  mixed  class  shall 
receive  less  than  $60.00  per  annum  more  than  a  female 
teacher  of  a  girls'  class  of  a  corresponding  grade  and  years 
of  service.' " 

Some  propose  that  men  should  be  assigned  only  to  higher 
grades.  I  am  opposed  to  the  limiting  of  the  places  to 
which  men  shall  be  appointed,  just  as  I  am  opposed  to 
limiting  the  places  to  which  women  shall  be  appointed. 
History  shows  in  the  lives  of  Frobel  and  Pestalozzi  that 
men  have  been  successful  teachers  even  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  history  of  more  recent  date  shows  in  one  of 
our  American  cities  that  a  woman  can  be  a  successful 
superintendent  of  schools.  In  this  connection,  the  follow- 
ing editorials  anent  this  woman  superintendent  are  interest- 
ing: 

New  York  World,  July  30,  1909.  "  Mrs.  Young,  though 
she  follows  many  distinguished  educators  in  the  place,  is 
probably  better  equipped  for  the  service  than  any  of  them." 

New  York  Tribune,  August  i,  1909.  "  There  are  several 
reasons  why  a  woman  should  be  especially  fitted  for  the 
position  of  school  superintendent.  .  .  .  Chicago,  always 
daring  in  its  innovations,  has  chosen  a  woman  for  super- 
intendent of  its  public  schools.  There  can  be  no  question 
of  her  high  qualifications  for  the  place.  .  .  .  That  she  was 
unanimously  chosen  in  competition  with  men  is  either  a 
high  tribute  to  her  personal  worth  or  to  the  intelligence  of 
the  members  of  the  Board  of  Education,  who  decided  the 
case  on  its  merits,  eliminating  entirely  the  question  of  sex." 

New  York  Globe,  July  30,  1909.  "  What  will  the  educa- 
tionists who  have  sounded  an  alarm  against  the  feminization 
of  our  schools  have  to  say  of  the  selection  of  a  woman  as 
superintendent  of  the  schools  of  the  second  largest  city 
in  the  country?  .  .  .  But,  after  all,  it  is  not  the  educa- 
tionists who  will  be  most  disturbed.  Whatever  her  in- 
tellectual gender,  it  is  clear  that  Mrs.  Young  has  been 
chosen  because  of  her  superior  fitness  for  the  position." 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        253 

Brooklyn  Times.  "  Chicago  contains  a  population  only  a 
little  less  than  that  possessed  by  the  Borough  of  Manhat- 
tan. She  is  the  second  city  in  size  in  America.  Her  school 
problems  must  be  something  like  those  of  Greater  New 
York.  The  Chicago  Board  of  Education  is  composed  of 
men.  This  woman  must  possess  unusual  ability  and  force 
of  character  to  have  won  to  her  support  a  body  that 
would  naturally  be  prejudiced  against  her  sex.  Given  a 
man  of  equal  ability  in  opposition,  he  should  easily  have 
been  the  victor,  with  only  men  acting  as  judges.  But  Mrs. 
Young  through  her  own  inherent  abilities,  broke  down  all 
these  old-time  prejudices  and  carried  off  one  of  the 
highest  prizes  in  the  educational  world." 

Again  we  read,  "  Mrs.  Agnes  Knox  Black  has  just  been 
appointed  professor  of  elocution  in  Boston  University.  She 
was  chosen  from  among  several  score  of  candidates  most 
of  whom  were  men. 

"  Miss  Ruth  Carrell  has  been  appointed  assistant  profes- 
sor in  department  of  bacteriology  in  the  University  of 
Michigan.  She  is  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
young  women  in  the  country. 

"  Miss  Margaret  E.  Cross  is  professor  of  education  in 
Tulane  University." 

DISCRIMINATIONS  OTHER  THAN   SALARY, 

In  contrast,  is  the  experience  of  those  who  have  opposed 

Equal  Pay.    Many  of  them  have  been  rewarded.    Mr.  S 

was  made  teacher  in  charge  of  annex  to  Manual  Training 

School.     Miss  G who  publicly  stated  that  she  did  not 

believe  in  "  Equal  Pay  "  was  given  a  district  superintend- 

ency ;  as  was  also   Mr.  E the  first  president  of  the 

Association  of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals,  organized  to 

oppose  the  women's  association.    Mr.  T was  given  the 

principalship  of   a   high   school.     The   following  also   is 
significant : 

"Holders   of   Permanent   Licerkse   No.    i    (Men   only) 


254         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

whose  records  are  satisfactory,  and  who  desire  to  serve  as 
teachers  in  charge  of  study  room  (teachers  of  English)  in 
the  recreation  centers  during  the  season  of  1908-1909, 
should  present  themselves  at  this  office  (Room  422),  on 
Wednesday,  November  4,  or  Thursday,  November  5,  or 
Friday,  November  6,  1908,  at  4  p.  m.  The  compensation 
for  this  work  is  $2.50  per  session.  No  examination,  written 
or  oral  will  be  required." 

Neither  in  law,  in  logic,  nor  in  fact,  is  there  any  ground 
for  holding  that  the  proposed  legislation  infringes  in  any 
way  upon  the  principle  of  home  rule,  or  is  mandatory 
legislation  in  the  sense  that  it  interferes  with  the  account- 
ability of  any  local  authority  to  the  people  of  the  locality. 


What  is  municipal  home  rule?  It  is  a  local  government 
accountable  to  the  people  of  the  locality.  What  does  this 
mean?  It  means  a  government  conductied  by  officials 
accountable  to  the  people  of  the  city  for  their  official  con- 
duct. 

This  is  fundamental  and  elementary. 

It  was  to  accomplish  this  result  in  the  case  of  city  govern- 
ment in  New  York  and  Brooklyn  that,  after  twenty-five 
years  of  effort,  we  at  last  secured  a  mayor,  elected  by  the 
people,  with  full  authority  to  appoint  and  remove  at  his 
pleasure  heads  of  city  departments ;  and  in  the  last  charter 
of  New  York  no  head  of  a  department  holds  office  for  any 
fixed  term  whatever.  This  is  home  rule  as  far  as  it  has 
yet  gone  in  the  government  of  the  City  of  New  York.  We 
can  at  least  hold  the  Mayor  responsible  for  the  conduct  of 
his  heads  of  departments.  If  our  street  cleaning  commis- 
sioner does  not  do  his  duty,  or  our  police  commissioner 
is  derelict,  we  can  appeal  to  the  Mayor,  and  the  Mayor 
can  remove  him  at  pleasure. 

Now,  in  what  sense  is  the  Board  of  Education  account- 
able to  the  people  of  New  York  City?  Its  members  hold 
offices  for  fixed  terms  of  five  years,  and  are  irremovable 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        255 

except  upon  charges  and  a  regular  trial.  What  this  means 
we  know  from  abundant  experience  in  New  York,  where 
for  years  and  years  the  heads  of  departments  held  office 
for  fixed  terms  and  were  not  removable  except  on  regular 
charges  and  after  a  trial  at  which  they  were  entitled  to  be 
represented  by  counsel.  They  never  were  removed,  and 
each  one  managed  his  department  as  he  pleased. 

Suppose  the  people  of  New  York  are  dissatisfied  with  the 
way  in  which  the  Board  of  Education  manages  educational 
affairs,  what  can  the  people  do  about  it  ?  Suppose  the  Mayor 
is  dissatisfied,  what  can  he  do  about  it?  The  charter  in 
terms  excepts  the  Board  of  Education  from  the  control 
of  the  Mayor.  They  are  neither  elected  nor  are  they 
removable  by  any  elected  official.  They  hold  an  utterly 
irresponsible  position,  accountable  to  nobody  but  them- 
selves for  their  official  conduct. 

How,  then,  is  the  principle  of  home  rule  infringed  when 
this  irresponsible,  independent  body  is  given  more  or  less 
power?  It  may  be  wise  to  give  them  more,  it  may  be 
wise  to  take  some  of  their  power  away ;  but  there  is  no 
more  home  rule  involved  than  there  is  when  the  Legislature 
says  what  the  duties  of  the  superintendent  of  prisons  should 
be.  I  suppose  the  superintendent  of  prisons  would  feel  that 
his  "  home  rule "  was  interfered  with  if  the  Legislature 
decided  that  it  was  for  the  best  interests  of  the  State  to 
change  its  regulations  with  regard  to  his  office. 

How,  then,  either  as  a  matter  of  law,  of  logic  or  of  fact 
can  the  Board  of  Education,  which  is  not  accountable  for  its 
acts  to  the  people  of  New  York  City  or  to  local  officers 
elected  by  the  people  of  New  York  City,  be  regarded  as 
an  illustration  of  the  principle  of  home  rule? 

From  time  immemorial  education  has  been  in  the  special 
care  of  the  State.  Education  is  a  State  function.  No  State 
in  the  Union  has  ever  surrendered  this  function,  or  has 
abdicated  the  right  to  exercise  the  function. 

THe  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  Article 


256         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

IX,  declares  that  the  Legislature  shall  provide  for  the 
maintenance  and  support  of  a  system  of  free  common 
schools  wherein  all  the  children  of  this  State  may  be 
educated — all  the  children  of  this  State;  not  some  of  them. 
but  all  of  them.  Whether  the  children  happen  to  be  resi- 
dents of  New  York  City  or  of  Chemung  County,  the 
Constitution  says  that  the  Legislature  shall  provide  for 
the  maintenance  and  the  support  of  schools  in  which  they 
shall  be  educated. 

And  there  is  no  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  who 
does  not  know  that  the  Board  is  not  a  city  department.  It 
is  an  independent  corporation,  created  such  in  terms,  as 
the  agent  of  the  State,  to  carry  out  and  administer  what- 
ever policy  the  State  determines  in  the  matter  of  education 
in  New  York  City.  The  City  of  New  York,  as  such,  has 
absolutely  no  control  whatever  over  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. It  has  no  superior  except  the  New  York  Legislature. 
If  the  Board  of  Education  does  wrong,  if  it  has  too  much 
power,  or  if  it  has  too  little  power,  there  is  no  authority 
to  which  to  appeal  to  right  the  wrong,  to  diminish  or  to 
increase  the  power,  except  the  Legislature.  The  Mayor 
has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  either  the  grant  or  the 
exercise  of  any  power  by  the  Board  of  Education.  Its 
members  are  not  his  subordinates.  His  opinion  with  regard 
to  the  conduct  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  its  afifairs 
is  of  no  more  legal  consequence  than  that  of  any  other 
citizen  of  the  State. 

In  my  opinion,  the  sending  of  this  bill  to  the  Mayor  of 
New  York  for  his  acceptance,  after  its  passage  by  the 
Legislature,  was  of  very  doubtful  necessity.  It  hardly 
seems  a  special  city  law  under  the  definition  in  Article 
XII,  section  2,  of  the  Constitution,  which  says,  "  Special 
city  laws  are  those  which  relate  to  a  single  city  or  to 
less  than  all  the  cities  of  a  class."  This  was  a  bill  affecting, 
not  the  corporation  of  the  City  of  New  York,  but  affecting 
a  special  corporation  created  by  the  Legislature  to  per- 
form a  special  task,  namely,  to  carry  out  and  administer 
the  legislative  policy  as  to  education  within  the  physical 
area  of  the  City  of  New  York. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        257 

The  Gunnison  case,  decided  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  in 
1903  (176  N.  Y.,  11),  states  very  clearly  the  precise  legal 
status  of  the  Board  of  Education.  The  decision  is  by  a 
unanimous  court,  consisting  of  Chief  Judge  Parker  and 
Judges  Gray,  Bartlett,  Haight,  Cullen,  Werner  and 
O'Brien,  unanimously  affirming  a  decision  of  the  Appel- 
late Division,  Second  Department,  made  by  Goodrich,  P. 
J.,  and  Bartlett,  Woodward,  Jenks  and  Hirschberg,  //., 
Justice  Hirschberg  writing  the  opinion  at  the  Appellate 
Division  and  Justice  O'Brien  in  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

A  teacher  sued  the  Board  of  Education  for  salary.  De- 
murrer was  interposed  on  the  ground  that  the  City  of  New 
York  was  the  proper  party  to  be  sued,  because  the  Board 
of  Education  was  a  city  department,  like  the  Dock  De- 
partment, for  example. 

"  It  is  apparent  from  the  general  drift  of  the  argument 
that  the  learned  counsel  for  the  defendant  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  employment  of  the  teachers  in  the  public  schools 
and  the  general  conduct  and  management  of  the  schools 
is  a  city  function,  in  the  same  sense  as  it  is  in  the  case 
of  the  care  of  the  streets  or  the  employment  of  police  and 
the  payment  of  their  salaries  and  compensation.  But  that 
view  of  the  relations  of  the  city  to  public  education,  if 
entertained,  is  an  obvious  mistake.  The  city  cannot  rent, 
build,  or  buy  a  schoolhouse.  It  cannot  employ  or  discharge 
a  teacher,  and  has  no  power  to  contract  with  teachers 
with  respect  to  their  compensation.  There  is  no  contract 
or  official  relation,  express  or  implied,  between  the  teachers 
and  the  city.  All  this  results  from  the  settled  policy  of  the 
State,  from  an  early  date,  to  divorce  the  business  of  public 
education  from  all  other  municipal  interests  or  business, 
and  to  take  charge  of  it  as  a  peculiar  and  separate  func- 
tion through  agents  of  its  own  selection  and  immediately 
subject  and  responsive  to  its  own  control.  To  this  end 
it  is  enacted  in  the  general  laws  of  the  State  that  all  school 
trustees  and  boards  of  education  shall  be  corporations, 
with  corporate  powers,  which,  of  course,  includes  the  power 
to  sue  and  be  sued  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  control 
and  management  of  the  schools  (School  Law,  title  8,  section 


258         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

7).  These  corporate  powers  are  expressly  conferred  upon 
this  defendant  by  the  City  Charter  (Section  1062). 
.  .  .  The  only  purpose  for  which  the  defendant  was  created 
a  corporate  body  was  to  conduct  a  system  of  public  educa- 
tion in  a  designated  division  of  the  State,  and  manage  and 
control  the  schools  therein.  This  obviously  includes  the 
employment  and  payment  of  teachers,  and  none  of  these 
powers  or  functions  are  conferred  upon  the  city  as  such. 
The  only  relation  that  the  city  has  to  the  subject  of  public 
education  is  as  the  custodian  and  depositary  of  school 
funds,  and  its  only  duty  with  respect  to  that  fund  is  to 
keep  it  safely  and  disburse  the  same  according  to  the  in- 
structions of  the  Board  of  Education.  ...  If  the  State  has 
departed  from  the  settled  policy  that  has  prevailed  since  its 
organization  of  keeping  the  work  of  public  education  and 
the  control  and  management  of  its  schools  separate  and  dis- 
tinct from  all  other  municipal  interests  and  business  by 
the  selection  of  its  own  agents  and  clothing  them  with  cor- 
porate powers  to  represent  the  schools,  such  as  school 
districts  and  boards  of  education,  and  has  devolved  these 
powers  and  duties  directly  upon  the  city,  we  would  naturally 
expect  to  find  such  a  departure  and  notable  change  expressed 
in  language  so  clear  that  no  doubt  could  arise  as  to  this 
change  of  policy.  If  the  Board  cannot  be  sued  for  teachers' 
wages,  and  the  teacher  must  resort  to  a  suit  aginst  the  city, 
then  surely  the  Board  must  have  sunk  into  a  mere  city 
agency,  and  it  no  longer  has  any  use  for  independent  cor- 
porate powers.  Public  education  then  becomes  a  city  func- 
tion, exposed  to  the  taint  of  current  municipal  politics,  and 
to  any  and  every  mismanagement  that  may  prevail  in  city 
departments.  .  .  .  We  have  seen  that  the  policy  of  this 
State  for  more  than  half  a  century  has  been  to  separate 
public  education  from  all  other  municipal  functions,  and 
to  entrust  it  to  independent  corporate  agencies  of  its  own 
creation,  such  as  school  districts  and  boards  of  education, 
with  capacity  to  sue  and  to  be  sued  in  all  matters  involved 
in  the  exercise  of  that  corporate  power.  .  .  .  The  learned 
counsel  for  the  defendant  must,  therefore,  be  able  to  point 
to  some  new  and  plain  provision  of  the  present  charter 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        259 

that  abolishes  the  long-settled  policy  of  the  State  and  re- 
duces the  Board  of  Education  to  a  mere  city  agency,  in- 
capable of  being  impleaded  in  the  courts  as  a  defendant 
upon  oae  of  the  contracts  it  made  for  the  employment  of 
teachers  in  the  schools." 

The  Court  of  Appeals  then  holds  that  there  are  no  such 
provisions  in  the  charter,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  the 
Board  of  Education  remains  what  it  always  has  been,  an 
independent  corporation,  the  agent  of  the  State  for  the 
maintenance  and  support  of  such  system  of  education  as 
the  State  decides  shall  be  supported  and  maintained  within 
the  physical  area  of  The  City  of  New  York. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  State  has  never  hesitated,  either  in 
New  York  or  in  the  other  States  of  the  Union,  to  take 
effective  measures  to  compel  a  given  locality  to  raise  by 
taxation  sufficient  funds  to  maintain  a  proper  system  of 
education.  When  the  State  standard  of  what  should  be 
expended  for  education,  in  view  of  the  general  interests 
of  the  public,  is  higher  than  the  local  standard  the  locality 
sometimes  fails  to  raise  enough  money  by  taxation  to  sup- 
port the  schools  according  to  the  State  standard.  To  meet 
this  niggardliness  on  the  part  of  the  local  taxing  officers, 
resort  is  sometimes  had  to  the  conferring  of  direct  powers 
of  taxation  on  boards  of  education,  or  to  mandatory  legisla- 
tion directing  that  such  and  such  a  per  cent,  of  the  annual 
tax  levy  in  the  locality  shall  be  devoted  to  school  pur- 
poses. 

When  the  Greater  City  of  New  York  was  created  the 
experiment  was  tried  of  having  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment  act  upon  the  budget  which  the  Board  of 
Education  prepared,  setting  forth  the  needs  of  the  depart- 
ment of  education.  Experience  soon  made  it  clear  that  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  would  not  willingly 
allow  a  sufficient  sum  adequately  to  support  education  in 
New  York.  The  Legislature  was  compelled,  therefore,  to 
state  a  minimum  figure  and  to  order  that  at  least  that 
amount  should  be  collected  in  The  City  of  New  York  and 
devoted  to  the  purposes  of  education.  This  is  the  origin 
of  the  four-mill  provision  contained  in  the  so-called  Davis 


26o         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Law  of  1900,  now  incorporated  in  section  1064  of  the  New 
York  Charter. 

When  the  city  authorities  announced  that  property  in 
New  York  would  thereafter  be  assessed  at  one  hundred 
per  cent,  of  its  market  value,  it  was  thought  that  the  four- 
mill  provision  would  produce  more  money  than  was  needed, 
and  the  city  authorities  asked  the  Legislature,  therefore,  to 
reduce  the  four  mills  to  three.  This  was  done  in  1903. 
But  the  raising  of  the  assessed  values  to  one  hundred  per 
cent,  of  the  market  value  never  really  materialized,  and 
the  three-mill  provision  has  proved  insufficient.  This  pro- 
posed bill,  therefore,  restores  the  original  four  mills  to  be 
spent  for  purposes  of  education. 

Since,  therefore,  both  law  and  logic  and  the  actual  exist- 
ing facts  require  that  if  any  change  is  needed  in  the  policy 
or  method  of  administration  of  education  in  New  York 
City,  the  State  and  State  only  can  compel  the  change,  to 
what  authority  except  the  State,  shall  those  appeal  who 
believe  that  the  present  policy  of  the  Board  of  Education  in 
New  York  City  is  unjust?  The  Mayor  cannot  change  the 
policy  and  the  Board  of  Education  announces  that  it  will 
not  change  the  policy. 

THE  CRITICISM   OF  THE  PROPOSED  BILL  BECAUSE  IT  IS  MAN- 
DATORY 

The  proposed  bill  is  criticised  because  it  is  mandatory. 
It  is  hard  to  speak  of  this  criticism  with  respect.  The 
Board  of  Education  is  the  mere  agent  of  its  principal,  the 
State.  All  the  powers  of  the  Board  are  and  must  be  granted 
by  mandatory  legislation.    There  is  no  other  way. 

It  is  a  familiar  principle  of  the  law  of  agency,  and  a 
maximum  of  common  sense,  that  when  the  principal  em- 
ploys an  agent  it  is  the  principal,  and  not  the  agent,  who 
determines  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  power  of  attor- 
ney given  the  agent.  That  is  precisely  the  situation  here. 
The  Board  of  Education  is  the  agent  of  the  State,  acting 
for  the  State,  not  under  an  irrevocable  power  with  terms 
so  broad  that  the  agent  is  left  free  to  work  his  own  will. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        261 

Such  a  situation  would  be  absurd.  It  would  be  an  abdica- 
tion by  the  State  of  one  of  its  fundamental  duties.  All 
legislation  in  regard  to  the  Board  of  Education  is  neces- 
sarily a  command,  a  mandate.  The  real  question  is  whether 
the  mandate  which  the  State  gives  is  wise.  In  the  year 
1900  the  State  gave  the  Board  of  Education  a  certain  man- 
date under  which  the  State  has  now  become  convinced 
gross  injustice  has  been  committed.  It  now  revokes  that 
mandate  and  declares  another  policy  which  in  its  opinion 
is  unjust.  Up  rises  the  agent,  the  Board  of  Education, 
and  says :  "  This  is  mandatory  legislation  which  undoes 
the  injustice,  and  therefore  the  legislation  is  unwise.  You 
are  interfering  with  our  right  to  do  what  we  please." 

THE  HOME  RULE  AND  MANDATORY  LEGISLATION  ARGUMENTS 

Mayor  McClellan's  veto  messages  of  both  the  "White 
Bill  "  and  the  "  Gledhill-Foley  Bill  "  included  "  Home  Rule  " 
Objections.  On  this  point,  Horace  E,  Deming  in  his 
Memorandum  in  support  of  the  White  Bill  after  the  Mayor's 
veto,  said : 

Governor  Hughes  in  his  veto  message  said:  (Gov.  Hughes 
Veto  pp.  I,  3,  and  4  to  parenthesis). 

"  The  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of  New  York  con- 
sists of  forty-six  members,  appointed  by  the  Mayor  for 
terms  of  five  years  respectively.  They  are  excepted  from 
the  general  provisions  of  the  charter  authorizing  the  Mayor 
to  remove  public  officers  holding  office  by  appointment  from 
him,  whenever  in  his  judgment  the  public  interest  shall  so 
require,  and  are  removable  only  on  sustained  charges. 
While  styled  the  head  of  an  administrative  department, 
the  Board  of  Education,  by  the  terms  of  the  charter,  pos- 
sesses the  power  and  privileges  of  a  corporation.  As  such, 
it  sues,  and  may  be  sued.  It  has  '  the  management '  and 
control  of  the  public  schools,  and  of  the  public  school 
system  of  the  city,  subject  only  to  the  general  statutes  of 
the  state,  relating  to  public  schools  and  public  school  in- 
struction and  the  provisons  of  the  charter." 


262         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

GOVERNOR   hughes'    CLEAR   AND  DECISIVE   NEGATION    TO   THE 
HOME   RULE   OBJECTION 

"Apart  from  the  power  of  the  Mayor  to  appoint  and 
remove  as  stated,  and  the  duty  of  the  city  to  supply  the 
funds  required,  the  Board  of  Education  exercises  its  pozvers 
independently.  It  is  not  subject  to  control  by  the  city 
AUTHORITIES.  There  is  no  contract  or  official  relations  be- 
tween the  teachers  and  the  city.  The  city  cannot  be  sued 
upon  the  contracts  made  by  the  board.  This  results,  as  the 
Court  of  Appeals  has  said,  from  '  the  settled  policy  of  the 
state  from  an  early  date  to  divorce  business  of  public 
education  from  all  other  municipal  interests  or  business,' 
and  from  the  creation  of  the  Board  of  Education  as  a 
corporate  body  '  to  conduct  a  system  of  public  education 
in  a  designated  division  of  the  state  and  manage  and  con- 
trol the  schools  therein.'  "  (Gunnison  v.  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, 176  N.  Y.  on  pp.  16,  17.) 

"  The  Board  of  Education  is  thus  directly  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  Legislature,  and  whatever  provisions  may 
be  found  necessary  or  wise  for  the  purpose  of  defining  its 
powers  or  prescribing  its  policy,  must  be  prescribed  by  the 
Legislature.  No  other  authority  is  competent  to  make  such 
provision. 

"  But  while  the  Legislature  has  power  to  deal  with  every 
phase  of  the  matter,  the  course  which  experience  approves, 
is  that  certain  general  principles,  of  action  should  be  laid 
down,  and  that  within  these  principles,  freedom  with  refer- 
ence to  details  of  management  should  be  left  to  the  sub- 
ordinate body  acting  with  peculiar  knowledge  of  local  con- 
ditions. 

"  (N.  B.  The  '  White  Bill'  sought  to  lay  down  the  gen- 
eral principle,  *  that,  where  men  and  women  are  both  em- 
ployed under  any  particular  schedule,  there  shall  be  no  dis- 
crimination in  salary  on  account  of  the  sex  of  the  incum- 
bent.'—G.  C.  S.) 

"  When  the  so-called  Davis  law  was  passed  in  1899 
(signed  by   Governor   Roosevelt,   May   3,    1900),   it   was 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         263 

thought  important  to  the  educational  interests  of  the  city 
that  certain  minimum  salaries  for  teachers  should  be  pre- 
scribed, as  well  as  minimum  annual  increments,  presumably 
to  improve  the  service.  In  these  prescribed  minima,  wide 
differences  appear  between  the  amounts  payable  to  men  and 
to  women.  These  control  the  Board  of  Education  only  as 
minimum  requirements,  but  the  practice  has  been  to  pay 
women  less  than  men,  and  under  the  by-laws  adopted  by  the 
board  glaring  inequalities  now  exist.'  " 

City  Superintendent  Maxwell  speaking  at  Milwaukee, 
1905,  said :  "  The  best  means  hitherto  found  to  enable  the 
state  to  reinforce  without  discouraging  local  authorities  is 
the  enactment  by  its  legislative  branch  of  the  laws  laying 
down  minimum  requirements  and  making  of  regulations 
by  its  educational  officers,  which  shall  have  the  force  of 
laws.  These  laws  should  embrace  at  least  the  following 
provisions:  A  minimum  salary  for  the  teachers  that  shall 
be  in  some  degree  commensurate  with  their  training,  etc." 

HOME  RULE  AND  THE  DAVIS   LAW 

From  Report  of  the  New  York  City  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  1900: 

"  It  may  be  inferred  that  there  must  have  been  some- 
thing extraordinary  in  the  local  conditions  to  call  for  the 
enactment  of  this  Statute  (the  Davis  Law)  by  the  Legis- 
lature. Such  indeed  was  the  case.  Stated  briefly,  the  most 
obvious  reason  why  the  teachers  had  the  support  of  the 
press  and  the  public  and  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of 
the  Governor  was  that  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Appor- 
tionment had  failed  to  proznde  the  funds  necessary  to  carry 
into  full  effect  a  comparatively  mild  measure  regarding 
teachers'  salaries  which  the  Legislature  had  passed  in 
1899  (the  Ahearn  Law.)  This  statement  is  the  exact  truth, 
and  it  was  the  truth  that  appealed  so  strongly  to  the  press, 
the  public,  and  the  legislative  authorities. 

"  In  1897  the  New  York  Board  of  Education  came  to 


264         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

realize  the  absurdities  and  injustices  of  the  system  of  pay- 
ing teachers,  and  made  many  honest  and  strenuous  efforts 
to  remedy  abuses  by  adopting  new  salary  schedules.  Every 
one  of  these  efforts  was  rendered  abortive  by  the  failure 
of  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  to  provide 
the  funds  necessary  to  carry  the  revised  schedules  into 
effect.  Even  the  attempt  of  the  Legislature  in  1899,  known 
as  the  Ahearn  Law,  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot  was  nullified 
in  the  same  way — the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportion- 
ment did  not  supply  sufficient  money." 

From  report  of  the  New  York  City  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  1907. 

"  We  struggled  along  for  three  or  four  years  under 
very  great  financial  difficulties,  which  caused  serious  injury 
to  the  school  system,  and  kept  up  constant  irritation  and 
agitation  among  the  teaching  force.  These  difficulties 
reached  their  culmination  in  the  school  year  1899-1900, 
when  for  months  no  salaries  were  paid  to  teachers  in  the 
Boroughs  of  Queens  and  Richmond,  when  the  salaries  of 
many  teachers  were  arbitrarily  reduced. — So  great  was  the 
unrest — that  a  comprehensive  measure  was  introduced  into 
the  legislature  by  Senator  Davis. 

"  It  (the  Davis  law)  put  an  end  to  an  almost  intolerable 
condition  with  regard  to  teachers'  salaries. — Under  these 
circumstances  I  cannot  but  regard  the  Davis  law  as  having 
been  of  very  great  advantage  to  the  schools.  I  sincerely 
trust  that  it  will  be  maintained  on  the  statute  book  as  a 
defense  against  capricious  changes  in  teachers'  salaries,  until 
something  better  is  provided." 


THE  governor's  REASONS  FOR  SIGNING  THE  DAVIS  BILL 

On  signing  the  bill  May  3,  1900,  Governor  Roosevelt 
attached  a  memorandum  containing  this  statement :  "  The 
general  purpose  of  the  bill  is  admirable,  and  the  best  educa- 
tors, the  men  most   interested   in   seeing  the   schools   of 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         265 

Greater  New  York  put  upon  a  thoroughly  efficient  basis, 
most  thoroughly  favor  the  measure.  The  Ahearn  Law  was 
rendered  nugatory  by  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment.  This  action  plunged  affairs  into  chaos 
and  rendered  legislation  absolutely  necessary ;  the  present 
bill  being  drawn  primarily  merely  to  meet  the  pressing 
necessity  created  by  this  action  and  by  the  chaos  into  which 
it  threw  the  schools.  The  general  purpose  of  the  bill  is  so 
good,  the  change  so  vitally  good,  and  the  provisions  as  a 
whole  will  tend  so  much  to  the  betterment  of  the  schools 
that  I  deem  it  best  to  sign  the  bill." 

That  the  Board  of  Education  itself  has  not  hesitated  to  go 
to  Albany  for  relief,  appears  in  the  Minutes  of  said  Board, 

e.  g. 

The  minutes  of  the  Board  show  that  in  1887,  when  Hewitt 
was  Mayor,  the  Board  under  the  presidency  of  J.  Edward 
Simmons,  appealed  to  the  Legislature  to  re-open  the  budget. 
This  request  was  granted  and  $150,000  obtained  for  the 
relief  of  financial  stress  in  the  New  York  school  system. 

Similar  action  was  taken  in  1902. 

The  appended  extract  from  the  minutes  of  the  meeting 
of  February  24,  1904,  shows  exactly  how  the  Board 
appealed  for  relief  when  it  found  itself  facing  a  deficit  of 
$381,343.72 — $250,000  of  which  was  needed  to  operate  the 
recreation  centers  and  playgrounds.  At  this  meeting  a 
special  committee  comprising  Felix  M.  Warburg,  Jacob  W. 
Mack,  A.  Stern  and  William  Lummis,  submitted  the  fol- 
lowing report: 

"After  careful  consideration  of  the  needs  of  the  system 
and  possible  methods  of  raising  money  to  meet  existing 
and  threatened  deficiencies,  your  committee  is  of  the  opinion 
that  there  is  but  one  practical  way  of  securing  funds.  This 

IS   THROUGH    AN    ACT    OF    THE    LEGISLATURE,    which    permits 

the  re-opening  of  the  Budget.  For  this  action  there  is 
ample  precedent  in  the  year  1902.  It  has  been  learned  that 
such  a  bill  has  been  introduced,  at  the  behest  of  the  City 
Administration,  into  both  houses  of  the  Legislature." 


266         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  committee  then  offered  the  following  resolution, 
which  was  adopted: 

"  Resolved,  That  Senate  Bill  No.  498,  which  has  for  its 
purpose  the  granting  of  power  to  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment  to  reopen  the  Educational  Budget  for 
the  year  1904,  in  order  to  provide  moneys  necessary  for 
the  unimpaired  maintenance  of  the  public  schools,  and 
which  has  been  introduced,  be,  and  it  is  hereby  approved, 
and  that  the  city's  legal  representative  be  requested  to  take 
active  steps  to  further  the  passage  of  this  measure." 

This  information  is  of  value  in  refuting  arguments  that 
the  Board  has  never  appealed  to  the  Legislature. 

That  New  York  state  is  not  unique  in  this  matter  ap- 
pears from  the  following: 


MORE   PAY   FOR   TEACHERS   IN    UTICA 

The  bill  which  will  enable  the  School  Board  of  Utica  to 
increase  the  salaries  of  the  school  teachers  has  been  passed 
by  the  Legislature  and  after  being  approved  by  the  mayor 
and  Common  Council  will  be  returned  to  Albany  for  the 
signature  of  the  governor.  The  measure  raises  the  limit 
for  school  appropriations. 

Governor  Hughes  signed  this  hill. 

PLAN   TO  GET   MORE    MONEY  FOR   SCHOOLS 

Legislation  is  being  sought  in  Tennessee  which  will  pro- 
vide that  twenty-five  cents  on  $100  of  taxable  property  in 
Memphis  shall  be  set  apart  for  school  purposes.  This 
with  the  state  appropriation,  will  create  a  fund  sufficient 
to  meet  the  current  expenses  of  the  schools,  but  it  is 
claimed  by  the  Board  of  Education  that  the  funds  for  the 
new  school  buildings  that  are  imperatively  demanded  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  situation  as  it  is  now  presented  to 
them  must  be  provided  by  a  bond  issue. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        267 

From  Milwaukee — "  With  a  view  toward  enabling  the 
teachers  to  receive  the  full  increase  contemplated  by  the 
committee  on  rules  (of  the  school  board)  the  legislature 
at  its  ensuing  session  will  be  asked  to  enlarge  the  amount 
that  may  be  raised  by  taxation  beyond  the  present  limit 
of  3^  mills  on  each  dollar  of  assessed  valuation. 


WORKING    FOR    A    STATE    SCHOOL   SYSTEM 

"  A  State,  rather  than  a  local,  school  system,  is  proposed 
for  Pennsylvania  by  the  Educational  Commission  appointed 
by  Governor  Stuart,  two  years  ago,  and  bills  putting  it 
into  effect  are  now  before  the  legislature  of  that  state.  The 
control  of  the  schools  is  taken  from  the  cities  and  towns 
and  lodged  in  the  state,  which  will  direct  them  through  a 
board  of  seven  regents,  appointed  by  the  governor.  Pro- 
vision is  made  for  a  state  superintendent. 

"  Cities,  towns  and  villages  are  classified  into  three  divi- 
sions, according  to  population,  and  the  school  boards  thereof 
are  to  be  elected.  In  the  cities  the  boards  will  consist  of 
fifteen  members,  appointed  by  the  courts ;  in  second  class 
districts  the  boards  will  have  nine  members,  three  elected 
every  two  years  for  six-year  terms,  while  the  smallest  dis- 
tricts will  elect  boards  of  five,  one  member  being  chosen 
each  year  for  five  years.  Board  powers  in  conducting  the 
schools  are  given  to  these  boards,  subject  to  the  general 
regulations  of  the  state  regents. 

"  Methods  of  taxation  are  to  be  uniform,  the  boards 
being  limited  to  levying  not  more  than  10  mills  on  the 
dollar  in  the  big  cities.  Textbooks  cannot  be  changed 
oftener  than  five  years,  and  the  lists  of  such  will  be  pre- 
pared by  the  state.  Provision  is  made  for  the  education  of 
all  children  and  for  their  transportation  where  necessary. 
Compulsory  education  laws  modelled  after  those  of  this 
state  are  included. 

"  Colleges  of  education  in  Pittsburg  and  Philadelphia 
are  to  be  opened  and  normal  schools  throughout  the  state 
will  be  incorporated  in  the  school  system." 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

HOME  RULE  AND  MANDATORY  LEGISLATION 

All  the  opponents  of  the  Women  Teachers  forget  the 
"  Home  Rule "  and  "  Mandatory "  arguments  when  the 
proposition  to  omit  the  "  Davis  Law "  from  the  revised 
charter  is  under  consideration.  Witness  the  following  ex- 
tracts from  Mr.  Shumway's  pen  as  printed  in  the  Eagle, 
Dec.  20,  1908: 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle : 

"  Do  the  people  of  New  York  realize  that  in  the  pro- 
posals of  the  Charter  Revision  Commission  is  involved  no 
less  danger  than  the  placing  of  the  public  schools  under 
political  control  ?  That  this  a  real  and  not  a  fancied  danger 
is  made  plain  in  Chairman  Ivins'  testimony  before  the  Cas- 
sidy  Committee.    Mr.  Ivins  said : 

"  I  am  a  home  ruler ;  I  do  not  know  any  reason  why  the 
Legislature  should  be  called  upon  to  fix  the  salaries  of 
teachers  or  firemen  or  scrub  women  or  policemen,  or  any- 
thing else  .  .  .  The  theory  of  the  Charter  Commis- 
sion is  that  all  salaries  hereafter  should  be  fixed  by  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  .  .  .  Our 
commission  believes  in  the  doing  away  of  the  fixing  of  any 
minimum  or  maximum  salaries  by  the  Legislature." 

It  is  worth  while  to  compare  with  the  above  the  words 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  quoted  approvingly  by  Governor 
Hughes  in  his  veto  of  the  White  Bill : 

"  The  settled  policy  of  the  state  from  an  early  date  has 
been  to  divorce  the  business  of  public  education  from  all 
other  municipal  interests  or  business."  (Gunnison  vs. 
Board  of  Education,  176,  N.Y.) 

With  the  Board  of  Estimate  in  absolute  control  of  school 
finances,  what  is  there  to  prevent  a  return  to  the  conditions 

268 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        269 

described  by  Superintendent  Maxwell  in  his  report,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  We  struggled  along  for  three  or  four  years  under  very 
great  financial  difficulties,  which  caused  serious  injury  to 
the  school  system,  and  kept  up  constant  irritation  and  agi- 
tation among  the  teaching  force.  These  difficulties  reached 
their  culmination  in  the  school  year  1899- 1900,  when,  for 
months,  no  salaries  were  paid  to  teachers  in  the  boroughs 
of  Queens  and  Richmond,  when  the  salaries  of  many  teach- 
ers were  arbitrarily  reduced  ...  So  great  was  the 
unrest  .  .  .  that  a  comprehensive  measure  was  intro- 
duced into  the  legislature  by  Senator  Davis. 

"  It  (the  Davis  Law)  put  an  end  to  an  almost  intolerable 
condition  with  regard  to  teachers'  salaries  .  .  .  Under 
these  circumstances,  I  cannot  but  regard  the  Davis  Law 
as  having  been  of  very  great  advantage  to  the  schools.  I 
sincerely  trust  that  it  will  be  maintained  on  the  statute  book 
as  a  defense  against  capricious  changes  in  teachers'  salaries, 
until  something  better  is  provided." 

"  There  are  real  dangers  to  pupils  and  teachers  in  the 
proposed  revision  of  the  educational  chapter  of  the  city 
charter. 

x"  First,  as  to  tenure  of  office.  Is  it  understood  that 
teachers  are  not  protected  by  civil  service  rules?  That  if 
the  present  charter  protection  were  repealed,  the  teacher 
of  long,  '  fit  and  meritorious  service '  may,  at  the  end  of  any 
year,  be  simply  "  not  re-engaged  ?  "  That  retention  may  be 
conditioned  not  on  school  service,  but  on  political  service- 
ableness?  That  the  chief  victim  of  such  a  condition  will 
be  the  child? 

"  Second,  as  to  salaries.  Is  it  understood  that  the  salary 
of  one  year  will  furnish  no  assurance  regarding  that  of 
the  ensuing  year?  That  the  salary  of  $1,300  one  year  may 
be  reduced  the  next  year  to  $1,000  or  $900?  That  this 
would  be  true  even  if  the  provision  guarding  tenure  were 
retained,  or  even  if  teachers  were  put  under  civil  service 
rules?  The  case  of  Walters  vs.  City  of  New  York  (119 
Appellate  Division  Reports  464)  decided  in  May,  1907, 
clearly  establishes  this  point.     Judge  Gaynor's  concurring 


270         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

opinion  expressly  states:  'The  said  board  (Estimate  and 
Apportionment)  has  the  power  to  reduce  as  well  as  in- 
crease salaries,  to  readjust  the  scale  of  salaries  in  any 
department  on  the  recommendation  of  the  head  thereof, 
and  the  courts  have  no  right  to  hamper  it  in  the  exercise 
thereof." 

Is  it  understood  by  parents  and  teachers  that  the  repeal 
of  the  Davis  Law  (carrying  down  with  it,  of  course,  the 
mandatory  three  mills  )^  signifies  a  relapse  to  the  old  condi- 
tions when  tenure,  salary  and  promotion  hung  absolutely 
on  the  will  of  the  machine  boss?  When  the  teacher  who 
gave  "  the  right  party  "  a  liberal  "  rake-off  "  on  his  salary 
was  the  favored  one,  and  no  parent  could  secure  fair  treat- 
ment of  his  child  as  against  such  "  influence  ?  "  Is  it  under- 
stood that  the  schools  have  a  way  of  "  going  to  the  dogs  " 
under  such  "  home  rule  "  in  New  York  City  ? 

E.  S.  SHUMWAY. 

Brooklyn,  Dec.  19,  1908. 

Now,  of  course,  the  repeal  of  the  Davis  Law  would  not, 
of  necessity,  "  carry  down  with  it,  of  course,  the  mandatory 
three  mills,"  as  the  "  three  mill  "  law  constitutes  Sec.  1064 
of  the  Charter,  while  the  "  Davis  Law  "  as  now  understood 
is  Sec.  1091.  Neither  is  the  "  tenure  of  office  "  affected  by 
the  Davis  Law.  As  to  the  closing  statements  of  Mr.  Shum- 
way's  letter,  I  can  only  say  that  I  was  in  the  Brooklyn 
schools  six  years  befcfre  the  "  Davis  Law "  was  enacted, 
and  I  consider  such  aspersions  on  the  Board  of  Education 
totally  unwarranted.  It  is  unfortunate  reflection  on  the 
one  who  confesses  knowledge  of  such  illegal  transactions. 
The  Globe  of  May  7,  1909,  commented  thus : 
"  In  the  report  of  its  By-fa w  committee  in  opposition  to 
the  teachers'  salary  bill,  adopted  yesterday  by  the  Board  of 
Education,  one  of  the  reasons  given  for  opposition  to  the 
bill  was  that  the  proposed  schedules  *  provide  not  minimum 
rates  of  salary,  but  absolute  rates  which  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation can  neither  increase  nor  diminish',  thus  depriving  the 
Board  of  Education  and  the  city  authorities  of  all  rights 


Senator  Grady, 


"Equal  Pay"  Oratob. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        271 

which  inhere  in  them  in  the  matter  of  fixing  salaries  of 
members  of  the  supervising  and  teaching  staff. 


BUT— 

In  the  report  on  charter  revision,  adopted  by  the  board, 
the  fixing  of  salaries  by  the  State  was  favored  in  the  fol- 
lowing declaration: 

"  Your  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  principle 
embodied  in  section  1091  of  the  present  charter  (state  pro- 
tection of  teachers'  salaries)  should  be  embodied  in  the 
new  charter  or  the  proposed  administrative  code." 

The  Board  of  Education  again  in  May,  1910,  petitioned 
the  Legislature  to  retain  the  Davis  Law  in  the  revised  char- 
ter. While  Women  Teachers  need  not  Fear  the  Abolition 
of  the  Davis  Law,  because : 

1st.  Governor  Hughes's  references  in  his  message  on 
our  bill,  to  the  "  glaring  inequalities "  and  "  gross  in- 
justices" of  the  present  salary  schedules,  and  the  public 
sentiment  aroused  during  the  past  two  years,  practically 
guarantees  the  women  teachers  against  reduction  in  salary. 

2nd.  The  only  salaries  that  have  been  increased  since 
the  adoption  of  the  Davis  Law  have  been  those  of  teachers 
and  supervisors  not  protected  by  the  Davis  Law,  namely: 

(a)  Male  teachers  in  grades  below  7A. — (For  such  the 
Davis  Law  provides  no  minimum  or  maximum  after  a 
specified  term  of  service.) 

(b)  Teachers  and  supervisors  of  special  subjects. 

(c)  District  Superintendents,  Associate  City  Superinten- 
dents, and  City  Superintendents. 

(d)  Members  of  the  Board  of  Examiners. 

N.  B.  Even  the  Attendance  (Truant)  Officers — the  only 
employees  other  than  members  of  the  supervising  and  teach- 
ing force  who  are  paid  out  of  the  general  fund — have  had 
their  maximum  salary  raised  from  $1200  to  $1500. 

3Td.  City  Superintendent  Maxwell  in  speeches  at  the 
conventions  of  the  National  Educational  Association  and 
at  other  meetings,  has  taken  the  stand  that  the  State  should 


272         EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

fix  and  protect  minimum  salaries  of  teachers  in  its  public 
schools. 

4th.  All  teachers  agree  in  the  belief  that  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  schools  will  be  served  by  state  protection  of 
their  salaries; 

But  the  following  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted 
at  the  general  meeting  of  our  association,  December  5, 
1908: 

Whereas:  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York  believes  that  the  best 
jinterests  of  the  schools  are  being  preserved  by  the  state 
laws  which  protect  the  teachers'  tenure  of  office  and  the 
teachers'  pension  fund ;  and 

Whereas:  Said  Association  while  not  advocating  the  so- 
called  Davis  Law  as  such,  believes  that  inasmuch  as  the 
State  makes  mandatory  provision  for  the  common  school 
education  of  all  its  children  between  the  ages  of  four  and 
twenty-one  years,  it  is  but  reasonable  and  logical  for  the 
'State  to  make  mandatory  provision  for  the  payment  of 
teachers  and  other  officers  required  to  carry  out  such  man- 
datory provisions,  therefore 

Resolved :  That  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York  exert  all  its  powers 
toward  securing  such  action  by  the  Charter  Revision  Com- 
mission, the  State  Legislature,  and  the  State  Executive  as 
will  secure  to  teachers : 

(a)  Just  salary  schedules  in  which  there  shall  be  no  dis- 
crimination in  the  salary  of  a  position  because  of  the  sex 
of  the  incumbent ; 

(b)  The  present  State  protection  of  the  tenure  of  office 
of  teachers ; 

(c)  State  protection  of  teachers'  pensions,  which  shall 
not  vary  with  the  sex  of  the  teacher  or  officer  pensioned ; 
and 

(d)  The  moneys  necessary  to  carry  out  such  schedules 
as  may  be  established  under  (a)  above,  by  providing  that 
the  city  shall  set  aside  an  amount  not  less  than  four  mills  on 
every  dollar  of  assessed  valuation  of  the  real  and  personal 
estate  in  the  City  of  New  York,  liable  to  taxation. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

SOME  FEATURES  OF   HEARINGS  BEFORE   MAYOR  MAC  CLELLAN 

The  Mayor,  contrary  to  all  legislative  practice,  called 
upon  the  proponents  of  the  measure  first.  This  naturally 
put  us  at  a  disadvantage.  At  the  first  hearing  we  were 
surprised  by  this  proceeding,  because  our  experience  at 
the  three  hearings  in  Albany  had  led  us  to  expect  that  the 
opposition  would  be  called  for  first.  Before  the  second 
hearing,  I  wrote  Mayor  McClellan,  asking  him  to  reverse 
the  order  at  this  time;  but  he  did  not.  He  even  refused 
us  a  minute  for  rebuttal ;  but  that,  too,  was  denied. 

At  the  hearing  on  the  White  bill,  we  thought  it  best  to 
have  members  of  our  own  Association  present  our  case :  so 
our  speakers  were  Mrs.  Curtis  Lenihen,  as  assistant  to  prin- 
cipal ;  Miss  Lina  E.  Gano,  as  high  school  teacher,  Mrs. 
Annie  B.  Moriarty,  as  principal;  Miss  Isabel  A.  Ennis,  as 
grammar  grade  teacher;  Miss  Emma  V.  McCleary,  as  pri- 
mary grade  teacher,  and  myself. 

At  the  hearing  on  the  Gledhill-Foley  bill,  we  decided  to 
have  representative  citizens  speak  on  our  behalf,  and  more 
than  seventy  appeared  to  do  so.  Their  names  follow,  but 
time  permitted  only  a  few  to  voice  their  approval.  Among 
them  were: 

Sen.  P.  F.  McCarren. 

Mr.  John  C.  Freund,  Editor  and  taxpayer. 

Mrs.   Belle  de  Rivera — President  of   City   Federation   of 

Women's  Clubs. 
Mrs.  William  Gumming  Story — as  a  taxpayer. 
Rev.  Alexander  Irvine. 
Lillie  Devereux  Blake. 

Thos.  Freel,  a  born  New  Yorker  and  a  taxpayer. 
Senator  Gledhill. 
Assemblyman  Foley. 

273 


274         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

Commissioner  Holland,  of  the  Board  of  Education,  repre- 
senting Central  Federated  Union. 
The  opposition  has  been  the  same  at  both  hearings :  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Education ;  male  teachers ;  and  repre- 
sentatives of  Taxpayers'  Associations.  I  submit  some  ex- 
tracts from  their  speeches.  The  speeches  of  our  advocates 
appear  in  Part  II.    Be  sure  to  read  them. 

Types  of  Opposition. 

Mr.  De  Muth,  President  of  the  West  Side  Taxpayers'  As- 
sociation, 
Executive  Committee  Greater  N.  Y.  Taxpayers'  Associa- 
tion. 
United  Real  Estate  Owners'  Association. 

"  We  have  with  us  a  representative  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  one  of  the  meaibers  of  the  Board  of  Education. 
Here  are  the  underlings  of  that  department,  the  superior 
officers  having  refused  to  give  them  what  they  believe  they 
were  entitled  to,  etc." 
Mr.  Shumway. 

"  We  are  asking  that  the  economic  law  be  regarded,  be- 
cause we  believe  that  any  violation  of  this  law  will  react 
to  the  injury  of  the  schools." 
Mr.  Abraham  Korn. 

I  represent  the  Harlem  Property  Owners'  Association. 
"  Now  we  all  know  that  men  have,  since  the  creation  of  the 
world,  been  on  a  footing  a  little  above  the  female  sex." 

The  "  Taxpayers'  Association  "  representative,  who  says : 
"  We  have  educated  these  young  ladies."  "  We  have  guar- 
anteed them  a  position  the  very  day  they  graduated  from 
Normal  School."  "  The  taxpayers  feel  that  they  have 
treated  these  young  ladies  very  magnanimously,  by  guar- 
anteeing to  them  as  soon  as  they  graduate,  a  profession  in 
which  they  can  earn  a  livelihood,  the  opportunity  to  enter 
the  public  schools  of  this  city  and  earn  their  living  as 
teachers."  "  We  have,  by  legislative  enactments,  taken 
them  out  of  politics,"  "  we  have  made  provisions  for  taking 
care  of  these  teachers ;  they  draw  their  salaries  even  during 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        275 

sickness  under  certain  circumstances,  and  their  position  is 
waiting  for  them  when  they  return  and  are  able  to  do  their 
work  again."  "  And  there  is  another  provision  whereb}', 
after  twenty  years  of  service,  they  are  allowed,  by  reason  of 
old  age,  to  retire  on  a  certain  per  cent,  of  their  salary." 
"  If  they  reach  tlie  age  of  thirty  years  of  service,  they  are 
compelled  by  law  to  retire  on  a  certain  per  cent,  of  their 
salary."  "  This  illustrates  once  again  the  generosity  with 
which  the  teachers  of  this  city  are  treated  by  the  citisens  of 
the  city."  "  The  citizens  .  .  .  have  been  very  careful 
to  go  to  Albany  and  carefully  legislate  our  public  schools 
out  of  politics  entirely,  and  thereby  safeguard  the  public 
schools  against  political  influence  and  interference  and 
against  all  uses  of  privilege  and  all  of  those  things."  * 

Imagine  how  hard  it  is  to  have  to  sit  and  listen  to  this 
"We,"  "We,"  "We,"  "the  citizens,"  "the  taxpayers." 
As  if  "  these  young  ladies  "  "  these  teachers  "  were  brought 
into  the  City  like  sparrows  or  fish  spawn  from  some 
foreign  country,  instead  of  being  the  daughters,  sisters, 
and  in  some  few  instances  the  wives  and  mothers  of  our 
taxpayers.  Hundreds  are  direct  taxpayers.  All  are  in- 
direct taxpayers  through  their  landlord  or  boarding-house 
keeper. 

As  to  our  pensions,  one  would  think  Mr.  Levey  and 
some  other  men  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  and  gave 
us  the  money.  Instead  of  which,  we  ourselves  contribute 
to  the  pension  fund  from  the  day  we  begin  to  teach  under 
a  regular  appointment,  one  per  cent,  of  our  salaries ;  and 
to  this,  are  added  all  deductions  for  unexcused  absences — • 
during  1907  these  deductions  amounted  to  $274,743.13 — 
and  five  per  cent,  of  the  excise  taxes.  Neither  is  a 
teacher  allowed  to  retire  "  by  reason  of  age  "  after  twenty 
years,  nor  is  she  "compelled  to  retire"  after  thirty  years 
of  service.  Not  until  she  is  65  years  old  can  a  teacher  be 
"  compelled  to  retire "  and  not  then  unless  she  has  served 
thirty  years. 

Like  his  companion  in  opposition  to  fair  play,  Mr.  De- 

*  These  are  extracts  from  Mr.  Levey's  speech  at  the  Mayor's  hear- 
ing on  the  Gledhill-Foley  bill. 


276         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Muth,  Mr.  Levey  was  astounded  by  our  conduct  in  daring 
to  go  to  Albany  in  search  of  relief.  He  said,  *'  we  are 
confronted  with  this  proposition  of  the  school  teachers 
banding  together,  and  going  down  to  Albany  to  increase 
their  salaries ;  they  have  entered  upon  a  systematic  cam- 
paign in  Albany  for  this  purpose." 

But  the  footless  part  of  all  such  argument  as  Mr.  Levey 
and  his  ilk  is  that  they  don't  touch  the  point  at  issue  at  all. 
They  all  jag  holes  in  the  field  outside  even  the  outside  ring, 
without  once  getting  near  the  bull's  eye.  Everything  they 
say  is  as  true  of  the  men  teachers  as  of  the  women  teachers. 
Is  it  impossible  for  them  to  see  that  we  are  simply  seeking 
"equal  pay  for  equal  work?" 


CHAPTER   XXV 

TEACHERS  AND  POLITICS 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  "women  teachers  and 
poUtics." 

To  begin  with,  I  think  the  woman  teacher  has  as  much 
right  as  a  man  teacher  or  any  other  citizen  to  take  an 
active  interest  in  poUtics — in  other  words  in  the  govern- 
ment of  her  country. 

The  Constitution  says,  "All  persons  born  or  natural- 
ized in  the  United  States  are  citizens  thereof  and  of  the 
State  in  which  they  reside."  The  officials  "  elected  by  the 
people"  are  elected  to  represent  the  women  and  girls  as 
truly  as  the  men  and  boys.  It  is  their  duty  to  conserve  and 
preserve  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  women  and  girls  as 
fully  as  they  do  those  of  the  men.  The  women  and  all 
minors  are  counted  among  those  who  are  enumerated  for 
the  purpose  of  fixing  the'  number  of  representatives  a 
State  shall  have  in  Congress.  It  is  the  duty  of  women 
teachers  to  be  acquainted  with  the  forms '  of  government, 
the  governmental  policies,  and  the  public  history  of  gov- 
ernment officials.  Why  should  woman  not  be  free  to  ex- 
press her  views  on  all  these  subjects,  and  to  do  all  that 
she  properly  can  to  influence  the  election  of  such  officials 
as  she  prefers  shall  represent  her? 

On  October  27,  1908,  the  City  Vigilance  League  of  New 
York,  addressed  a  circular  letter  "  To  the  Female  School 
Teachers  of  Ne»w  York  City: — "  in  which  it  said,  "The 
school  teachers  of  our  city  compose  one  of  the  strongest 
moral  forces.  They  are  shaping  the  characters  of  our 
children.  We  must  depend  upon  them  to  give  to  many 
thousands  their  only  teaching  in  veneration  for  law  and 
love  for  the  Constitution  and  its  spirit,"  and  yet  because 
members  of  this  league  thought  that  some  of  the  women 
teachers  were  opposing  the  re-election  of  Governor  Hughes, 
they  in  the  same  letter  made  several  absolutely  false  ac- 

277 


278         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

cusations  against  the  women  teachers,  which  led  Rev.  Mr. 
Parkhurst,  the  honorary  president  of  said  League,  and 
other  ministers  to  attack  us  in  a  most  unwarranted  manner. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers  as  an  association  never  took  any  of- 
ficial stand  one  way  or  the  other  in  the  gubernatorial  elec- 
tion of  1908.  There  were  some  members  in  favor  of 
Governor  Hughes'  candidacy.  Naturally,  however,  there 
were  more  in  favor  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Chanler's. 
My  personal  attitude  was  expressed  in  the  press  at  the 
time,  in  these  words,  "  I  am  not  one  who  believes  in  try- 
ing to  carry  water  on  both  shoulders,  and  I  openly  declare 
that  I  am  working  zealously  as  an  individual  for  the  suc- 
cess of  Mr.  Chanler.  Besides,  we  do  not  believe  that  there 
is  a  great  moral  issue  in  this  campaign.  Mr.  Chanler's 
attitude  on  the  gambling  bills  is  as  clear  as  Mr.  Hughes's. 
Those  who  favor  his  election  can  hardly  be  accused  of 
playing  into  the  hands  of  the  professional  race-track 
gamblers,  since  Mr.  Chanler's  vote,  as  presiding  officer 
of  the  Senate,  was  the  decisive  vote  which  brought  about 
re-consideration  of  the  bills,  and  so  insured  their  ultimate 
passage.  Furthermore,  since  his  nomination,  he  has  openly 
declared  that  he  will  veto  any  attempt  to  repeal  the  Hart- 
Agnew  law. 

We  have  been  accused  of  contributing  to  the  Chanler 
campaign  fund.  Like  all  the  other  accusations  made  in 
this  unfair  attack,  this  is  false.  Nor  do  I  know  of  any 
members  being  asked  to  contribute.  On  the  contrary, 
some  of  our  members  have  received  the  following  letter. 
It  has  been  addressed  in  each  case  to  Miss ,  indicat- 
ing that  those  who  were  sending  out  the  letters  were  mak- 
ing a  direct  appeal  to  women  teachers  to  contribute  to  the 
Hughes  campaign  fund." 

HUGHES  ALLIANCE 

non-partisan 
34  West  thirty-third  Street,  New  York. 

Telephone,  781  Madison  Square, 
Chairman, 

Hon.  Charles  A.  Schieren. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         279 

Vice-chairmen. 
R.  Fulton  Cutting. 
Darwin  R.  James,  Jr. 
Col.  Henry  W.  Sackett 
Ansley  Wilcox. 

Treasurer, 

J.  Adams  Brown, 

President  New  Nether- 
land  Bank, 
41  West  34th  Street. . 
Secretary, 

IMajor  F.  M.  Crosset, 
30  West  33d  Street. 

New  York,  October  28,  1908. 

"As  College  men,  we  are  fundamentally  interested  in 
the  fight  of  Governor  Hughes  to  maintain  an  independent 
and  efficient  State  administration  as  against  a  threatened 
return  to  the  old  methods  of  favoritism  and  inefficiency. 

"  This  is  not  a  new  fight.  Columbia  men  have  stood  on 
the  right  side  of  it  since  the  beginning. 

"  The  forces  which  stand  behind  the  opposition  to  the 
Governor  hoping  to  profit  by  his  defeat,  are  not  playing 
fair.  So  far,  the  anti-Hughes  campaign  has  been  one  of 
misrepresentation,  and  we  are  catching  up  as  rapidly  as 
possible  with  the  fanciful  stories  with  which  the  enemies 
of  constitutional  government  are  appealing  for  support,  and 
forcing  home  a  truthful  statement  of  facts. 

"  There  are  a  dozen  or  more  of  these  stories  in  circula- 
tion. The  absurd  scare  that  the  Governor's  re-election 
would  mean  Blue  Law  legislation  and  an  attempt  to  inter- 
fere with  the  legitimate  enjoyments  and  recreations  of  the 
people,  is  one  you  have  doubtless  heard.  Petitions  are  be- 
ing sent  out  to  work  up  anti-Hughes  sentiment  on  just 
such  "issues."  Each  bubble  bursts  before  the  first  gust 
of  truth  that  blows  on  it.  We  hope  to  do  enough  truth 
telling  to  make  the  Hughes  plurality  a  record-breaker  and 
thus  vindicate  the  honor  of  our  State. 

"  The  undersigned  address  you  on  behalf  of  the  Hughes 
Alliance,  an  organization  of  Democrats,  Republicans  and 


28o         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

Independents,  embarked  on  a  campaign  of  truth-telling  in 
support  of  Governor  Hughes.  We  feel  that  a  failure  to 
uphold  the  purpose  of  the  present  administration  would 
be  not  only  a  reflection  on  the  good  name  of  the  State, 
but  severe  reverse  to  the  cause  of  good  government,  and 
that  years  would  be  required  to  regain  the  ground  lost. 

"  Can  v^e  icount  on  your  assistance  to  the  extent  of  a 
subscription  of  $io,  or  more  if  possible,  to  carry  on  this 
work.  We  further  want  your  actual  support  in  your  own 
election  district,  and  hope  you  are  taking  an  active  part 
in  this  campaign. 

"  Will  you  *  line  up '  with  us  in  order  that  the  good 
work  of  Governor  Hughes,  so  well  begun,  may  be  car- 
ried forward? 

Very  truly  yours, 

Francis  S.  Bangs,  '78. 

'Benjamin  B.  Lawrence,  '87  Mines 

Herbert  L.  Satterlee,  '83. 

Albert  W.  Putnam,  '97. 

George  W.  Kirrhwey,  L.  S." 

The  board  of  education  at  this  same  time  tried  to  pass 
what  became  known  as  the  "  Gag  Law."  Commissioners 
Freifeld,  Wingate  and  Jonas  in  urging  this  resolution  con- 
fined their  criticisms  to  the  women  teachers  and  especially 
to  me,  as  evidenced  in  the  following  resolution  presented 
by  Commissioner  Jonas  on  October  14,  1908: 

"  Whereas,  In  the  public  press  recently  appeared  state- 
ments to  the  effect  that  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  a  district 
superintendent,  had  publicly  urged  employees  of  the  Board 
of  Education  to  electioneer  for  or  against  certain  candi- 
dates for  office  because  of  their  attitude  toward  the  so-called 
equal  pay  bill ;  and 

"  Whereas,  This  Board  of  Education  found  it  necessary 
not  long  ago  to  criticise  and  reprimand  this  same  employee 
for  political  activity  and  inattention  to  duty,  which  mild 
action  and  warning  has  had  no  apparent  effect,  be  it  there- 
fore, 

"  Resolved,  That  the  attention  of  the  City  Superintendent 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK        281 

of  Schools  be  called  to  the  matter,  with  the  request  for  a 
report  to  this  board." 

The  Eagle  of  October  15,  1908,  had  this  to  say  of  the 
matter : 

"  The  resolution  might  have  been  adopted  without  ques- 
tion but  for  the  opposition  of  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,*  who 
was  always  ready  to  defend  the  women  in  the  matter  of 
their  agitation  for  equal  pay."  Mr.  Donnelly  wanted  to 
know  what  the  City  Superintendent  was  expected  to  report : 
Was  it  as  to  whether  Miss  Strachan  had  a  right  to  exer- 
cise her  privileges?  It  was  an  inadvisable  resolution.  If 
she  had  neglected  her  duties,  then  charges  should  be  pre- 
ferred against  her;  but  if  she  was  doing  her  duty  as  dis- 
trict superintendent  she  had  a  right  to  exercise  her  privi- 
leges in  her  own  time.  She  was  not  the  only  one  taking 
part  in  the  campaign  or  movement.  There  were  others, 
but  she  was  the  most  successful.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
resolution  in  the  present  form  in  which  it  was  presented. 

"  Mr.  Jonas  replied  that  when  the  matter  was  up  before, 
he  had  called  the  attention  to  the  actions  of  Miss  Strachan 
and  others,  and  it  struck  him  that  because  of  their  inac- 
tion on  that  occasion  they  were  to  blame  for  the  present 
situation. 

"  Abraham  Stern  said  it  was  a  question  whether  the 
board  had  a  right  to  interfere  if  there  was  no  misconduct. 
Instead  of  investigating  Miss  Strachan,  they  should  first 
find  out  if  the  board  had  the  power  to  do  anything  in  the 
premises.  If  there  was  no  misconduct  on  the  part  of  an 
employee,  the  board  was  powerless.  He  moved  that  the 
matter  be  referred  to  the  committee  on  by-laws  and  leg- 
islation. 

"  With  a  request  that  it  report  at  the  next  meeting,"  put 
in  Mr.  Jonas. 

"  Robert  L.  Harrison,  the  chairman  of  that  committee, 
pleaded  with  the  board  not  to  refer  it  to  him.  He  wanted 
to  know  what  they  were  to  find  out.  Were  they  to  read 
the  papers  to  ascertain  what  Miss  Strachan  had  said? 
Were  they  to  summon  witnesses  ?    It  would  take  six  months 

♦Mr.  Donnelly  is  now  Public  Printer. 


282         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

to  find  out  what  Mr.  Jonas  wanted.  He  should  be  more 
definite. 

"  Mr.  Jonas  said  his  intention  was  plain.  If  warranted, 
charges  ought  to  be  preferred  against  Miss  Strachan.  It 
was  that  he  meant. 

"  Again  Mr.  Donnelly  entered  a  protest,  saying  that 
Miss  Strachan  was  assigned  to  certain  districts,  to  which 
he  and  Mr.  Schaedle  were  also  assigned.  If  she  was  not 
doing  her  duty  they  would  know  it,  and  would  prefer 
•charges  against  her  for  it;  but  they  could  not  prefer 
charges  against  her  for  what  others  were  permitted  to 
do.  There  were  clerks  and  other  employees  of  the  Board 
of  Education  who  were  active  in  political  work.  They 
had  a  right  to  be. 

"  After  Mr.  Kanzler  asked  whether  the  newspaper  clip- 
pings to  which  Mr.  Jonas  referred,  were  attached  to  the 
resolutions,  which  provoked  some  laughter,  the  resolution 
was  adopted  as  amended,  and  the  matter  is  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  committee  on  laws. 

"  Miss  Strachan  was  informed  last  evening  of  the  resolu- 
tion and  what  had  been  done,  and  she  was  astonished. 
She  said  she  had  received  permission  yesterday  afternoon 
from  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  attend, 
to-day,  the  hearing  upon  the  educational  department  budget 
for  herself.  Miss  Gano,  and  Miss  Curtis,  two  vice-presi- 
dents of  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teach- 
ers, and  did  not  suppose  any  fault  was  to  be  found  with 
the  action  of  the  association. 

"  I  have  not  neglected  any  of  my  duties,"  said  she,  "  and 
therefore  do  not  fear  what  the  Board  of  Education  will 
do  to  me.  As  to  taking  political  action,  I  believe  I  have 
the  right  of  an  American  citizen,  secured  to  me  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  even  if  I  am  not  a 
voter." 

"  Why  does  not  Mr.  Jones  find  out  what  the  men  em- 
ployees of  the  Board  of  Education  are  doing?  And  why 
does  he  not  ask  that  charges  be  preferred  against  them  ?  " 

The  By-Law  Committee,  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
board,  recommended  the  following  amendments: 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        283 

"  Section  i.  No  member  of  the  supervising  or  teaching 
staff  shall  be  permitted  to  join  or  become  a  member  of 
any  club  or  association  or  to  take  part  in  any  movement 
intended  or  undertaking  to  affect  legislation  for  or  on 
behalf  of  the  Department  of  Education,  or  any  officials  or 
members  thereof,  or  to  contribute  any  funds  for  such  pur- 
pose. 

"  Section  2.  Any  combination  or  concerted  effort  among 
the  employees  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  elect  or  de- 
feat any  candidate  for  public  office  by  reason  of  his  having 
agreed  or  refused  to  agree  to  favor  or  oppose  any  legisla- 
tion affecting  the  salaries  of  said  supervising  or  teaching 
staff  or  other  employees  shall  be  deemed  to  constitute  gross 
misconduct  and  insubordination. 

"  Resolved,  That  copies  of  the  foregoing  amendment  to 
the  by-laws  be  transmitted  to  the  principals  of  all  training, 
high  and  elementary  schools  with  the  instructions  that  the 
same  be  read  to  their  teachers  immediately." 

"  The  report  was  signed  by  Commissioners  Harrison, 
Freifeld  and  Wingate,  Mr.  Stern  refusing  to  concur  with 
the  others.  He  said  he  did  not  approve  of  the  teachers 
electioneering,  but  that  the  matter  was  one  which  needed 
careful  consideration,  and  asked  that  the  matter  be  put 
over.  Mr.  Stern  pointed  out  that  no  reference  was  made 
to  salaries  in  the  resolution  as  he  thought  there  should  be, 
as  there  might  be  other  matters  which  teachers  could  work 
for  or  against  with  impunity.  For  instance  a  bill  might 
be  introduced  in  the  Legislature  providing  for  a  different 
way  of  appointing  principals,  when  he  thought  the  princi- 
pals would  be  perfectly  justified  in  raising  a  protest.  He 
tried  to  show  how  many  persons  would  be  affected  by  the 
by-laws  by  saying  that  the  Department  of  Education  did 
not  consist  of  only  forty-six  members  but  of  the  entire 
clerical  and  teaching  staffs  and  650,000  pupils  as  well.  In 
conclusion  he  asked  that  six  members  stand  with  him  in 
asking  that  the  matter  be  put  over. 

"  Mr.  Stern  got  his  six  men,  but  Gen.  Wingate  moved 
to  suspend  this  by-law  for  the  meeting,  saying  that  the 
matter  was  an  important  one,  and  that  the  Board  was  con- 


284         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

fronted  with  an  emergency  which  should  be  acted  on  at 
once.  /  He  told  of  how  a  delegation  of  Brooklyn  teachers 
had  on  Tuseday  visited  the  home  of  a  candidate  for  office 
and  asked  him  to  pledge  himself  in  their  behalf,  with  the 
threat  that  if  he  refused  to  give  it  they  would  work  against 
him.  He  declared  that  the  13,000  teachers  who  had  banded 
themselves  together  were  hurting  the  Board  irreparably, 
and  as  Election  Day  was  so  near  immediate  action  should 
be  taken. 

"  George  Freifeld  expressed  himself  as  being  amazed 
at  the  stand  Mr.  Stern  had  taken,  and  said  that  the  650,000 
children  he  had  spoken  of  were  being  affected  at  the  present 
time  worse  than  they  would  be  if  the  by-laws  were  adopted. 
He  said  that  only  recently  during  school  hours  the  teachers 
in  a  school  had  collected  money  for  the  purpose  of  trying 
to  defeat  a  certain  candidate.  Mr.  Freifeld  told  of  a  secret 
meeting  of  the  Interborough  Association  held  last  Thurs- 
day even  after  the  matter  had  been  taken  up  by  the  Board. 

"  Robert  Harrison,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  By- 
Laws,  had  a  little  fun  over  the  remarks  that  Mr.  Stern 
had  made,  and  said  that  the  members  of  the  Board  might 
as  well  resign,  and  let  the  teachers  run  the  affairs.  After 
several  more  had  spoken,  Mr.  Stern  took  occasion  to  de- 
fend his  attitude,  and  said  that  the  proposed  by-law  did 
not  prevent  action  by  individuals.  He  thought  this  point 
was  one  that  ought  to  be  remedied.  Gen.  Wingate  with- 
drew his  motion  and  the  matter  went  over  until  the  next 
meeting." 

The  New  York  Commercial,  not,  I  believe,  friendly  to 
the  women  teachers'  cause,  made  this  editorial  comment, 
November  5,  1908: 

"  Opinions  will  differ  as  to  the  propriety  of  public-school 
teachers  engaging  actively  in  politics  and  especially  in 
those  political  matters  which  have  to  do  with  State  and 
municipal  legislation  on  educational  affairs.  But  as  to  de- 
fining such  political  activity  as  an  offense  carrying  with 
it  a  penalty,  why,  that  is  a  proposition  almost  too  absurd 
for  discussion." 

Yet  some  members  of  the  board  of  education  of  New 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        285 

York,  annoyed  at  the  electioneering  and  speech-making  by 
Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  a  Brooklyn  public-school  teacher, 
seriously  propose  to  "  put  the  law  "  on  her  and  her  kind. 
The  board's  committee  on  by-laws  has  just  made  a  report 
advising  that  nothing  be  done  to  Miss  Strachan  and  her 
co-offenders,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  by-law  at  present 
prohibiting  such  political  work,  but  recommending  that  a 
new  by-law  be  passed  that  would  make  it  gross  miscon- 
duct and  insubordination  for  any  member  of  the  teaching 
or  supervisory  staff  to  join  an  organization  that  under- 
takes to  influence  educational  legislation.  This  by-law 
would  also  forbid  opposing  or  seeking  the  election  of  any 
candidate  who  voted  for  or  against  the  bill  to  raise  the 
pay  of  the  teachers.  The  matter  went  over  to  the  next 
meeting,  but  not  until  a  warm  discussion  had  been  had  on 
the  proposition.  Commissioner  Abraham  Stem's  protest 
was  timely  and  forcible.  "  Every  teacher,"  he  said,  "  has 
a  right  to  express  his  or  her  opinion  upon  all  things  re- 
lating to  the  board  of  education  and  you  are  going  too  far 
in  making  it  insubordination  to  exercise  that  right."  Com- 
missioner Wingate  complained  that  over  in  Brooklyn  a 
committee  of  public-school  teachers  went  to  a  certain  can- 
didate for  public  office  and  said  that  the  thirteen  thousand 
teachers  of  Greater  New  York  would  put  a  boycott  on 
him  and  on  his  business  unless  he  would  pledge  himself 
in  advance  to  vote  for  higher  pay  for  the  teachers.  "  It 
is  time  that  we  stopped  this  sort  of  thing,  this  outrage," 
declared  the  commissioner.  By  "  we  "  he  meant  the  board 
of  education  presumably.  But  what  has  the  board  got  to 
do  with  it?  The  Brooklyn  candidate  ought  to  be  able  to 
handle  the  matter  himself.  There  is  law  enough  already 
that  he  can  "  put  on  "  every  member  of  the  teachers'  com- 
mittee who  threatened  him — and  he  ought  to  do  it.  But 
the  board  can't  muzzle  the  teachers.  If  they  choose  to 
make  fools  of  themselves  it  is  nobody's  business  but  their 
own." 

At  the  following  meeting,  held  on  Nov.  11,  1908,  the 
committee  had  modified  its  resolution  to  the  following: 

"Resolved,  that  the  by-laws  of  the  Board  of  Education 


2^6    EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

be,  and  they  are,  hereby  amended  by  inserting  therein  a 
new  section  to  be  known  and  designated  as  section  57A 
with  the  caption :  "  Electioneering  Prohibited  "  reading  as 
follows : 

"  Section  57A.  No  member  of  the  supervising  or  teach- 
ing staff  shall  individually  or  otherwise,  by  any  means  or 
methods,  publicly  advocate  the  election  or  defeat  of  any 
candidate  for  public  office  or  instigate  or  take  part  in  any 
movement  to  elect  or  defeat  such  candidate,  by  reason  of 
such  candidate's  attitude  toward  legislation  affecting  the 
salaries  of  members  of  the  supervising  or  teaching  staff." 

On  this  form  the  By-Law  Committee  had  been  a  unit, 
but  the  women  teachers  succeeded  in  preventing  its  adop- 
tion. The  vote  was  20  to  16  in  favor  of  the  amendment, 
but  a  majority  of  all  the  members,  that  is  24  votes,  were 
needed.    The  following  is  from  the  Eagle  of  Nov.  12,  1908. 

"  Robert  L.  Harrison,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  in 
moving  the  adoption  of  the  by-law,  conceded  that  there  had 
not  been  unanimity  in  the  committee  when  the  previous 
proposed  by-law  was  adopted,  but  that  now  the  Committee 
was  a  unit. 

"  Nathan  S.  Jonas,  who  introduced  the  original  motion 
by  which  the  matter  came  before  the  committee  admitted 
that  he  had  had  some  unpleasant  correspondence  since  that 
lime  but  he  had  had  no  quarrel  with  any  of  the  teachers, 
nor  did  he  have  a  preference  for  the  male  over  the  female 
teachers.  What  he  had  done  was  to  stop  insubordination 
in  the  system.  He  felt  that  the  board  of  superintendents 
in  charge  of  the  teaching  staff  should  have  enforced  dis- 
cipline. He  wanted  to  make  his  position  clear.  In  the 
future  he  would  endeavor  to  hold  the  superintendents  re- 
sponsible for  the  discipline  among  the  teachers. 

"  Hugo  Kanzler  hoped  the  by-law  would  not  be  adopted, 
because  he  did  not  want  to  abridge  the  freedom  of  speech. 
He  agreed  that  during  the  recent  election  the  action  of 
some  teachers  was  highly  improper,  and  he  was  so  im- 
pressed with  the  dignity  of  the  office  of  teacher  that  he  did 
not  want  any  of  them  to  stand  on  a  par  with  ward  heelers. 
There  was  no  reason,  however,  to  pass  any  drastic  measure. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        287 

which  would  curtail  the  right  of  the  teachers  to  pass  an 
opinion,  individually  or  collectively. 

"  Mr.  Kanzler  took  the  opportunity,  too,  to  reply  to  the 
attack  made  on  the  women  teachers  by  Dr.  Parkhurst, 
although  he  did  not  mention  the  clergyman  by  name.  He 
denounced  the  charge  that  they  were  in  an  unholy  con- 
spiracy with  the  gamblers.  The  teachers  of  the  city  were 
of  such  a  character  that  they  could  not  nor  would  they 
form  any  such  conspiracy.  He  saw  no  objection  to  their 
agitating  for  an  increase  of  salary,  if  they  did  not  neglect 
their  duty  in  the  classroom.  It  would  come  pretty  close  to 
hanging  a  padlock  on  the  mouths  of  the  teachers  and  put- 
ting the  key  in  the  hands  of  the  Board  of  Education.  He 
wanted  American  fair  play  for  all. 

"  General  Wingate  protested  that  the  resolution  would 
not  close  the  mouths  of  the  teachers.  It  was  intended 
solely  to  prohibit  electioneering,  and  was  confined  to  that 
prominent  evil.  They  were  meeting  a  great  public  evil, 
which  should  be  stopped. 

"  Samuel  B.  Donnelly  championed  the  women  teachers. 
During  the  month  of  October  the  newspapers  had  much  to 
say  about  the  active  participation  of  the  women  teachers  in 
the  campaign,  he  said,  and  members  of  the  Board  of 
Education  had  asserted  that  they  had  received  complaints 
from  candidates  to  the  effect  that  women  teachers  were 
actively  opposing  them.  The  press  reports,  however,  con- 
tained little  if  any  reference  to  the  political  activities  of 
the  men  teachers,  and  the  actions  of  the  men  teachers  were 
not  criticised  in  the  meetings  of  the  board.  It  was  there- 
fore fair  to  conclude,  said  he,  that  the  restrictive  by-law 
was  aimed  directly  at  the  women  teachers  only.  There  was 
antagonism  between  members  of  the  board  and  the  women 
teachers  and  between  men  and  women  teachers,  and  Mr. 
Donnelly  asserted  that  the  responsibility  of  this  antagonism 
rested  principally  with  the  men.  The  speeches  of  the 
leaders  of  the  men  teachers  and  the  circulars  which  had 
been  issued  by  them  were  indicative  of  a  spirit  that  merited 
condemnation  by  the  members  of  the  board.  In  his 
opinion  the  proposed  by-law  was  improper,  and  in  opposi- 


288         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

tion  to  the  state  constitution.  The  board  should  take  steps 
to  harmonize  the  differences  between  the  men  and  women, 
and  should  do  nothing  to  aggravate  the  situation. 

"  John  C.  Kelley  wanted  to  be  put  on  record  as  being 
opposed  to  the  resolution.  The  proposed  by-law  was 
opposed  to  the  right  of  free  speech,  which  was  guaranteed 
to  every  free  American.  If  the  same  things  of  which  the 
complaint  was  made  had  been  done  by  men  nothing  would 
have  been  said  or  done.  If  the  women  were  doing  their 
duty  in  the  schools  properly  and  fittingly,  then  it  was  all  that 
the  board  should  require  of  them. 

"  Abraham  Stern  defended  the  resolution  and  proposed 
by-law.  There  was  nothing  in  it  to  prevent  free  speeech; 
there  was  nothing  in  it  to  prevent  the  teachers  signing  any 
petition  in  behalf  of  any  principle.  Every  constitutional 
right  was  retained,  but  it  would  prevent  electioneering  and 
would  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  profession  of  teaching,  and 
the  majority  of  the  teachers  would  be  in  favor  of  it.  He  did 
not  think  there  would  ever  be  any  occasion  when  the  by-law 
would  have  to  be  enforced.  It  was  done  for  the  protection 
of  the  women  teachers  themselves. 

"  Men  who  voted  for  and  against  the  resolution. 

"  Yeas — Messrs.  Barrett,  Bruce,  Coudert,  Delaney, 
Dresser,  Freifeld,  Greene,  Haase,  Harrington,  Higgins, 
Ingalls,  Jonas,  Man,  May,  Schaedle,  A.  Stern,  C.  J.  Sulli- 
van, Suydam,  Wingate,  Winthrop. — 20. 

"  Nays — Messrs.  Aldcroft,  Cosgrove,  Cunnion,  Donnelly, 
Ferris,  Haupt,  Hallick,  Kanzler,  Katzenberg,  Kelley,  Mc- 
Donald, O'Donohue,  Partridge,  M.  S.  Stern,  M.  J.  Sullivan. 
—16." 

On  the  vote  on  this  proposed  by-law  the  New  York 
Commercial  said  in  an  editorial,  Nov.  13,  1908: 

"  It  is  almost  unbelievable,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true, 
that  twenty  members  of  the  New  York  board  of  educa- 
tion have  by  formal  ballot  registered  their  approval  of  a 
proposition  to  put  gags  in  the  mouths  of  the  public-school 
teachers,  to  withdraw  from  them  the  right  of  free-born 
American  citizens  to  express  their  personal  opinions.   The 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK        289 

matter  came  up  in  the  form  of  a  motion  made  at  the  last 
board  meeting  to  amend  the  by-laws  by  the  adoption  of  a 
section  forbidding  teachers  to  take  part  in  movements 
seeking  the  defeat  or  the  election  of  any  candidate  for 
public  office  because  of  that  candidate's  attitude  toward 
legislation  for  fixing  teachers'  salaries.  The  proposal  was 
aimed,  as  everybody  in  and  out  of  the  board  knows,  at 
those  women  teachers  who  have  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  passage  of  a  law  increasing  the  sal- 
aries of  women  teachers  in  this  city.*  As  to  the  proprie- 
ties or  the  good  taste  involved  in  all  this  there  is  a  ques- 
tion, of  course.  Some  people  may  approve  it,  others  may 
condemn  it,  and  others  still  may  hold  no  opinions  on  the 
subject.  It  all  depends  on  circumstances  and  the  point  of 
view.  But  to  seriously  attempt  to  stop  it  by  a  board-of- 
education-by-law,  violation  of  which  would  furnish  ground 
for  the  making  of  charges  that  might  cost  a  teacher  his 
or  her  position,  is  preposterous.  It  is  on  all  fours  with  a 
proposition  for  the  adoption  of  an  ordinance  forbidding 
holders  of  municipal  office  to  vote  in  city  elections  or  to 
join  political  clubs  or  other  political  organizations.  It 
reeks  with  intolerance  and  narrow  mindedness.  It  is  un- 
thinkable. Yet  only  one  more  vote  in  the  board  of  education 
would  have  carried  this  proposition  through.  Most  mem- 
bers of  the  board  of  education  very  naturally  and  prop- 
erly resent  the  action  of  those  women  teachers  who  seek 
to  go  over  the  board's  head  for  the  regulation  of  salaries 
by  law — a  matter  strictly  within  the  board's  jurisdiction  and 
control — but  to  take  any  official  notice  of  it  at  all  is  beneath 
the  dignity  of  a  school  commissioner.  Give  the  public 
school  teachers  all  the  tongue  latitude  and  all  the  rope  they 
want — they  will  gag  themselves  or  hang  themselves  in  good 
time  without  the  aid  of  by-laws." 

A  similar  policy  is  indicated  in  the  following  extract 
from  the  Sun  of  October  17,  1908: 

*  The  Commercial  is  mistaken  in  the  purpose  of  our  organiza- 
tion, which  is  to  establish  the  principle  of  one  salary  for  one  and 
the  same  position  regardless  of  the  sex  of  the  incumbent 


290         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

"  Mr.  Robinson  gave  out  copies  of  a  letter  he  had  writ- 
ten to  William  H.  Maxwell,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  in 
which  he  said : 

"  Referring  to  your  conversation  with  me  over  the  tele- 
phone to-day  in  which  you  stated  that  you  considered  our 
action  in  having  invited  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan  to  address 
the  budget  was  improper,  I  beg  to  say  that  the  matter  of 
the  teachers'  salaries  and  of  the  entire  school  budget  is 
one  in  which  the  taxpayers  of  the  city  are  vitally  interested. 

"  We  want  to  know  both  sides  of  the  question  and  we 
propose  to  seek  every  means  in  our  power  to  ascertain 
what  the  truth  is.  If  Miss  Strachan  is  able  to  present  any 
reasons  why  such  increase  should  properly  be  made  we  have 
the  right  to  know  what  these  reasons  are.  I  feel  very 
strongly,  therefore,  that  your  attitude  in  condemning  us 
for  asking  her  to  address  the  meeting  to-morrow  is  very 
extraordinary." 

The  Call  of  November  12,  1908,  contained  an  article 
which  read: 

"  In  connection  with  the  reported  attempt  of  the  Board 
of  Education  of  New  York  City  to  throttle  the  public 
school  teachers,  it  occurs  to  me  that  there  is  much  more  to 
be  considered  than  the  rights  of  the  teachers,  important 
as  these  rights  are. 

"  Unless  our  teachers  have  initiative,  individuality  and 
culture,  they  cannot  impart  these  qualities  to  the  children. 
Since  in  many  if  not  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  chil- 
dren's parents,  victims  themselves  of  the  present  unjust 
economic  conditions,  have  not  and  therefore  cannot  impart 
these  qualities,  the  importance  of  having  teachers  who 
can  do  so  is  at  once  obvious  and  overwhelming. 

"  If  culture,  as  Bosanquet  says,  is  '  A  habit  of  mind  in- 
stinct with  purpose,  cognizant  of  a  connection  and  a  tend- 
ency in  human  achievement,  able  and  interested  in  dis- 
cerning the  great  from  the  trivial,'  and  if,  as  Professor 
Zeublin  says,  *  Our  culture  cannot  stand  up  face  to  face 
with  contemporary  problems,  it  is  a  contemptible  culture,' 
then  indeed  must  we  realize  how  important  it  is  that  our 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         291 

teachers  should  have  every  possible  stimulus  to  its  de- 
velopment. What  greater  stimulus  can  there  be  than  that 
aflforded  by  the  opportunity  for  the  teachers  to  become  a 
positive  element  not  only  for  the  betterment  of  their  own 
condition  through  their  organized  political  effort,  but  in- 
directly, as  a  consequence  of  this,  the  elevation,  morally, 
mentally,  physically  and  politically  of  the  public  at  large? 

"  Does  the  Board  of  Education  think  that  its  undemo- 
cratic assaults  upon  the  freedom  of  speech  and  action  of 
the  teachers  will  encourage  people  of  character  and  con- 
viction to  enter  the  profession?  Do  they  wish  to  inflict 
upon  this  community,  instead  of  sturdy  educators  with  the 
character  and  individuality,  a  generation  of  pedagogic  jelly- 
fish, sans  culture,  sans  character,  sans  individuality,  and 
sans  brains.  If  so,  let  it  pursue,  its  high-handed  policy  of 
Russianizing  our  educational  system. 

"  I  should  like  to  see  my  own  children  become  fine  and 
useful  and  self-respecting  educators  of  the  coming  gen- 
erations, but  if  they  must  abdicate  their  intellectual  and 
moral  sovereignty,  then  it  were  better  that  they  should 
take  their  chances  in  the  fratricidal  struggle  called  private 
capitalism,  bad  as  it  is. 

"  School  teachers  of  New  York,  do  you  intend  to  be 
men  and  women  or  moUvcoddles  and  mollusks. 

"W.  W.  Passage. 

"411  Adelphi  St.,  Brooklyn,  Nov.  7." 

And  a  friend  wrote: 

"  I  am  no  encourager  of  '  insubordination,'  if  such  there 
be  anywhere,  in  the  course  pursued  by  certain  *  teachers ' 
in  New  York  City,  in  the  recent  State  Election  politics. 
But  I  am  quite  clear  in  my  own  mind  that  converting 
*  teachers '  into  helots  will  not  help  them  make  their  boys 
and  girls  into  free,  self-reliant,  independent  and  tolerant 
American  citizens.  I  am  personally  a  great  admirer  of 
both  Governor  Hughes  and  Superintendent  Maxwell.  I 
hoped  for  the  election  of  the  former.  I  consider  the  latter 
the  greatest  executive  yet  produced  in  American  Education, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  reformers.    Nothing,  however,  that 


292  EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

has  occurred  outside  of  my  own  experience  has  given  me 
more  genuine  personal  satisfaction  than  to  see  you  and 
your  associates  stand  honestly  and  openly  for  the  rights 
even  of  teachers  to  be  equal  citizens  with  others  in  this 
Republic.  In  other  words,  I  consider  that  the  board  of 
education  in  New  York  City  and  its  officers  are  offending 
against  the  best  interests  of  the  democratic  nation  that  is 
to  be  when  they  say  to  the  women  of  New  York  City 
schools  '  Silence :  we  are  the  thinkers  and  the  lords,'  and 
to  the  men  of  the  schools,  *  Splendid :  work  all  you  care 
to  as  long  as  you  work  in  line  with  the  powers  that  are.' 
"  Knowing  fairly  well  the  historic  inferiority  of  teachers 
and  their  isolation  from  '  going '  affairs,  knowing  also  the 
present  inferiority  of  women,  political  and  legal,  I  am 
not  surprised  at  the  attitude  of  the  school  authorities 
toward  the  women  who  do  the  work  of  education  at  direct 
contact  with  the  children  and  youth.  I  have  long  been  a 
convinced  equal  suffragist ;  and  as  such  welcome  the  present 
movement 

Yours  sincerely, 
(Signed)  William  E.  Chancellor, 
Superintendent,  Norwalk  Union    (City) 

School  District. 
Nov.  II,  1908." 

In  connection  with  all  the  foregoing,  the  following  letter 
was  sent: 

City  of  New  York,  November  10,  1908. 
To  the  Members  of  the  Board  of  Education: 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  re- 
spectfully submit  the  following: 

The  City  Vigilance  League  of  New  York,  whose  officers 
are  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  Honorary  President,  Frank 
IMoss,  President;  Matthew  Beattie,  Vice-President;  F.  W. 
Block,  Treasurer,  and  Thomas  L.  McClintock,  Secretary, 
recently  circulated  a  printed  circular  letter  addressed  to 
the  '  Female  School  Teachers  of  New  York  City,'  which 
contained  various  misstatements.  We  quote  some  extracts, 
and  state  the  facts : 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         293 

''  a.  '  Last  Friday  evening  the  women  teachers  held  a 
meeting  at  No.  5  West  125th  Street.  At  that  meeting  there 
was  distributed  a  circular  which  advised  voting  for  Mr 
Taft  and  Mr.  Chanler, — showed  how  it  could  be  done,  and 
giving  reasons  for  the  doing  of  it.* 

"  No  such  literature  has  ever  been  seen  or  discussed  or 
distributed  by  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers. 

"  b.  '  Women  teachers  are  going  among  their  friends 
.  .  .  and  are  urging  them  to  vote  against  Mr.  Hughes. 
.  .  .  They  say  that  their  instructions  are  to  do  this  un- 
gracious work  very  quietly.' 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  has 
never  offered  or  passed  any  resolution  affecting  the  candi- 
dature of  Governor  Hughes,  nor  has  the  Association  given 
instructions  to  work  quietly  for  any  candidate.  It  is  re- 
spectfully submitted  that  individual  members  have  the  same 
rights  as  other  citizens  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

"  c.  *  When  our  women  teachers  are  lending  themselves  to 
such  a  movement  .  .  .  seeking  to  obtain  votes  for  the 
ticket  for  which  the  gamblers  are  frantically  working; — 
when  it  is  all  being  done,  not  for  love  of  gambling  and 
gamblers,  not  for  unbridled  license; — but  simply  for  more 
pay  .  .  .  they  put  their  argument  on  the  sole  ground 
that  their  pocketbooks  would  be  benefited;  the  principles 
involved  are  overlooked.     .     .     .' 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  is 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the  principle  that 
for  'work  of  a  given  position  women  shall  receive  equal 
pay  with  men.'  Governor  Hughes  recognized  this  in  his 
message  on  the  *  Equal  Pay  Bill '  when  he  said :  *  It  is 
for  this  principle  the  supporters  of  the  bill  contend  and  not 
for  mere  increased  pay.'  The  association  at  all  public 
hearings  has  made  its  position  on  this  point  definite  and 
clear  and  it  has  never  sacrificed  any  other  moral  principle 
in  its  efforts  to  establish  this  one. 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  be- 
lieves it  to  be  necessary  and  proper  to  submit  the  above 


294         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

statement  to  your  Board  because,  as  your  employees,  its 
members  desire  you  to  know  the  truth,  and  also  because 
resolutions  criticising  the  women  teachers  and  based  wholly 
or  partly  upon  press  items  and  indirect  information,  have 
been  presented  and  discussed  at  recent  meetings  of  your 
Honorable  Board.  During  said  discussion  it  has  been 
charged  that  the  women  teachers  were  raising  a  campaign 
fund. 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  has 
never  raised  any  contribution  for  campaign  purposes. 
Neither  has  it  contributed  to  any  campaign  fund.  Further- 
more, the  only  request  for  contributions  to  a  campaign  fund 
received  by  any  of  its  members,  so  far  as  it  is  known  by 
this  association,  came  from  the  Hughes  Alliance,  and  asked 
for  a  subscription  of  '$io,  or  more  if  possible,'  for  the 
purpose  of  aiding  in  the  re-election  of  Governor  Hughes. 

"  In  conclusion,  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  respectfully  submits  that  it  is  its  intention  and 
desire  not  to  violate  any  by-law  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
while  relinquishing  none  of  the  rights  and  privileges  se- 
cured to  all  citizens  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  that  it  believes  the  women  teachers  are  justified  in 
looking  to  the  Board  of  Education  to  defend  them  against 
such  unwarranted  and  unjust  condemnation. 

"  Executive  Committee, 
"  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers." 

Throughout  this  controversy  so  much  had  been  said  in 
meetings  of  the  Board  and  reported  in  the  public  press 
about  me  and  my  work,  that  I  deemed  it  due  myself  and 
my  reputation  to  memorialize  the  Board  with  the  following 
statement : 

"  October  27,  1908. 

"  Whereas,  at  two  recent  meetings  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, held  on  October  14  and  October  28,  m.y  name  was 
used  in  a  formal  resolution  and  in  formal  discussion  in 
such  a  way  as  to  give  my  employer  and  the  public  ground 
for  thinking  that  I  am  neglecting  my  duty  as  district  super- 
intendent of  public  schools,  I  respectfully  submit  the  fol- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        295 

lowing  report  of  the  work  I  have  done  since  my  assign- 
ment to  Districts  33-35  and  the  commencement  of  my  duties 
in  said  districts  on  September  11,  1908: 

"  I.  Made  sixty  visits  to  the  nineteen  public  schools  and 
the  three  evening  schools  located  in  these  districts. 

"2.  Examined  ninety-three  teachers  in  their  classrooms 
for  report  on  approval  of  license. 

"  3.  Examined  eleven  teachers  in  their  classrooms  for  re- 
port on  approval  of  service. 

"  4.  Inspected  seventy-six  classes,  meeting  teacher  in  each 
class,  in  three  evening  schools. 

"  5.  Held  four  formal  conferences  with  principals  in  of- 
fice of  district  superintendent  after  3  p.  m. 

"  6.  Attended  four  meetings  of  local  school  boards. 

"  7.  Conducted  eight  formal  hearings  after  2.30  p.  m.,  in 
suspension  cases. 

"8.  Conducted  thirty-one  formal  hearings  after  3.30 
p.  M.,  in  truancy  cases. 

"  9.  Transferred  the  whole  organization  of  School  No. 
49  to  the  building  occupied  by  No.  117,  as  the  building  of 
the  former  had  to  be  closed  during  the  process  of  repairs. 
This  action  necessitated  putting  P.  S.  No.  117  entirely  on 
part  time,  giving  the  organization  of  the  latter  school  the 
A.  M.  session  and  No.  49  the  p.  m.  session.    And 

"  10.  Encompassed  changes  in  organization  in  ten  of  the 
ten  schools  in  District  No.  33,  and  in  six  of  the  nine  schools 
in  District  No.  35. 

"(N.  B. — Of  the  three  schools  not  reorganized,  one  P.  S. 
74  consists  of  grades  of  the  fifth,  seventh,  and  eighth  years 
only,  and  two — P.  S.  75  and  P.  S.  86 — will  be  the  subjects 
of  many  changes  in  the  near  future,  due  to  the  opening  of 
addition  to  No.  75.) 

"  II.  The  net  results  of  reorganization  already  completed 
are: 

"(i)  Reduction  in  number  of  pupils  on  part  time  from 
6560  to  3687 — that  is,  a  decrease  of  2893. 

"(2)  Increase  in  number  of  over-age  pupils  receiving 
special  instruction  and  care  from  959  to  2532 — that  is,  an 
increase  of  1573. 


296         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

*'  These  improvements  were  made  possible  by : 

"(i)  The  opening  of  the  addition  to  P.  S.  No.  24,  giving 
up  to  date  768  more  sittings.  The  total  number  of  addi- 
tional sittings  in  both  districts,  however,  is  only  732,  be- 
cause of  the  decrease  of  36  in  P.  S.  21  by  reseating  made 
during  summer  vacation. 

"(2)  Changing  school  district  boundaries  and  transfer- 
ring hundreds  of  pupils  to  neighboring  schools  where  there 
were  vacant  sittings. 

"(3)  Rearranging  classes  in  schools  so  as  to  make  better 
use  of  sittings. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  after  allowing  1464  as  the  number 
of  part-time  pupils  placed  on  full  time  by  the  732  addi- 
tional sittings  the  number  of  part-time  pupils  relieved  by 
means  of  other  changes  in  organization  amounts  to  1429. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  respectfully  ask  that  you  protect  my 
reputation  and  usefulness  as  an  employee  of  the  Board  of 
Education  from  unjust  attack  and  undeserved  injury." 

This,  however,  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  women 
teachers  had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Board,  but  it 
is  noteworthy  that  not  once  in  the  four  years'  struggle  has 
the  Board  criticised  the  male  teachers. 

The  Bronx  Star  of  September  12,  1907,  contained  the 
following : 

"  By  adopting  a  scathing  report  of  a  special  committee, 
the  Board  severely  rebuked  the  teachers,  who,  during  the 
agitation  for  *  equal  pay  for  equal  work '  last  spring,  ab- 
sented themselves  from  school  without  permission  and  went 
to  Albany  to  force  through  the  Legislature  their  salary  bill, 
which  Governor  Hughes  and  Mayor  McClellan  both  vetoed. 

"  No  *  positive  disciplinary  action,  even  against  the  chief 
offenders,'  is  recommended  by  the  committee  in  its  report. 
It  is  '  content  to  call  emphatic  attention  to  the  inherent  im- 
propriety of  the  acts  themselves  and  to  the  mischief  and 
injury  developed  in  the  system  by  their  practice,  and  to 
sound  a  fair  warning  against  their  repetition.'  The  com- 
mittee takes  this  stand  *  because  of  the  fact  that  in  the  past 
absence  from  school  duty  for  similar  purposes,  although 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK        297 

never  so  flagrant  as  during  last  winter,  was  usually  passed 
over  in  silence,  and  consequently  the  idea  has  developed  that 
condonation  would  follow  the  offense.' 

"  To  prevent  the  recurrence  of  '  a  demonstration  fraught 
with  such  large  possibilities  of  evil  to  the  system,'  the  com- 
mittee recommends  certain  drastic  reforms.  These  will  be 
put  into  operation  as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  Board  feels 
that  the  system  must  be  disciplined.  The  recommendations 
of  the  committee  are  as  follows: 

"  *  First — That  the  Committee  on  By-Laws  and  Legisla- 
tion be   requested  to   frame   immediately  more   stringent 
rules  governing  the  absence  of  teachers,  principals,  super- 
visors  and   superintendents    for  causes   other  than    those 
specified  in  Section  44  of  the  By-Laws.    In  the  opinion  of 
this  committee  the  present  deductions  are  wholly  inade- 
quate, and  have  no  deterrent  effect.     It  is  recommended 
that  a  larger  portion  of  the  pay  of  an  absentee  be  deducted. 
"  *  Second — That  absence  without  justifiable  cause  should 
be  immediately  followed  by  charges  of  neglect  of  duty  or 
insubordination   to  be   preferred   against   the  offender  by 
the  City  Superintendent  or  other  proper  supervising  officer 
or  member  of  the  Board  of  Education.    Such  action  is  ear- 
nestly recommended,  but  to  abridge  the  constitutional  right 
of  petition,  which  is  abundantly  secured,  but  to  preserve 
the  integrity  of  an  equally  important  institution,  known  as 
the  public  school  system,  from  the  effects  of  disorder  and 
demoralization,  if  not  disruption,  at  the  hands  of  agitators.' 
"  District  Superintendent  Grace  C.  Strachan,  who  man- 
aged the  teachers'  campaign,  and  Mrs.  Nora  Curtis  Leni- 
hen,  and  Miss  Isabella  Ennis,  president  and  secretary  of 
the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers,  which 
backed  the  salary  bill,  are  severely  critcised  in  the  com- 
mittee's report,  as  follows: 

"  *  There  are  instances  of  neglect  of  duty  which  call  for 
special  mention.  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan  is  a  district  su- 
perintendent in  receipt  of  a  salary  of  $5,000  per  annum 
from  the  city.  Her  absences,  as  reported,  aggregate  thirty- 
four  days.  The  place  she  holds  and  the  duties  she  is  called 
upon  to  discharge  are  especially  important  and  delicate  and 


298         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

preclude  the  possibility  of  performance  by  a  clerk,  nor  can 
neglect  of  them  be  cured  by  "  over-time."  She  is  the  offi- 
cial supervisor  of  twenty-two  principals  and  about  700 
teachers,  all  of  whom  are  under  her  supervision,  and  they 
have  a  right  to  assume  that  she  is  moved  by  the  highest 
ideals  of  fidelity  to  duty. 

"  *  Her  official  report  of  her  absences,  containing  the 
reasons  for  the  same,  reads  as  follows :  "  Work  in  a  cause 
destined  to  uplift  the  moral  standards  of  the  school  system, 
and  hence  of  the  community,  the  State,  the  nation,  and  the 
world — the  establishment  of  justice  for  the  women  work- 
ers in  our  public  schools."  She  was  so  engaged  during 
fully  one-fifth  of  the  school  year,  and  during  that  time 
she  rendered  but  little,  if  any,  service  in  supervision  of  the 
schools,  teachers  and  scholars  in  her  district,  for  which 
part  service  she  drew  her  salary  in  full. 

"  *  Mrs.  N.  Curtis  Lenihen  admits  an  absence  of  twenty- 
nine  days  since  January  i,  1907,  and  Miss  Isabella  Ennis 
admits  eleven  and  one-half  days.  Neither  deigns  to  assign 
any  cause  for  the  same.  Both  are  the  recipients  of  ample 
salaries  from  the  city  and  the  system,  against  whose  inter- 
ests they  persistently  agitated  for  legislation  that  was  noto- 
riously unjust  to  a  large  number  of  teachers.' 

"  The  number  of  days  of  absence  acknowledged  to  have 
been  spent  in  Albany  by  various  members  of  the  teaching 
and  supervising  staff  exceeds  500,"  the  report  continues. 
"  This  equals  an  absence  for  a  single  teacher  of  over  two 
and  a  half  school  years.  It  also  appears  that  upward  of 
300  of  the  supervisors,  principals  and  teachers  were  thus 
actively  engaged."  By  these  absences,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  committee,  "  the  service  was  demoralized." 

The  average  reader  of  the  foregoing  report  would  form 
the  conclusion  that  there  was  wholesale  neglect  of  duty  by 
the  women  teachers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  rarely 
that  more  than  one  teacher  was  absent  from  any  one  school 
at  the  same  time  for  the  purpose  of  "  going  to  Albany." 
It  must  be  remembered  that  there  were  then  511  public 
schools.  There  were  only  two  occasions  when  large  dele- 
gations of  women  teachers  went  to  Albany.    The  first  of 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK        299 

these  was  the  hearing  on  the  McCarren  bill  before  the 
Senate  Cities  Committee,  and  the  second,  the  hearing  on 
the  Conklin  bill  before  the  Assembly  Cities  Committee. 
Most  of  the  schools  sent  delegates.  With  only  one  from 
each  school,  it  will  be  seen  the  total  would  have  been  over 
500.  It  must  be  remembered  also  that  every  teacher  so 
absent  lost  her  day's  pay,  and  was  expected  to  supply  a 
substitute. 

In  my  own  behalf,  I  sent  the  following  communication 
to  the  Board : 

"  To  the  Board  of  Education: 

"  Sirs — Before  adopting  any  by-law  which  is  the  out- 
come of  the  report  presented  last  month  by  your  special 
committee  on  absences,  and  approved  by  your  Honorable 
Body,  I  respectfully  request  that  you  reconsider  said  re- 
port for  the  purpose  of  correcting  it.  I  am  not  willing  to 
believe  that  your  Honorable  Body  would  knowingly  permit 
a  false  or  even  misleading  statement  to  become  a  perma- 
nent part  of  your  records.  While  there  are  several  parts 
of  said  report  which  in  the  interests  of  justice  and  fair 
play  are  susceptible  of  alteration,  I  ask  for  the  correction 
of  only  one  part,  to  wit:  that  which  in  eflFect  states  that 
my  absence  of  thirty-four  days  constitutes  an  absence  of 
one-fifth  of  a  school  year.  To  begin  with,  thirty-four  is 
one-fifth  of  only  170.  During  the  past  school  year,  the 
day  schools  were  in  session  193  days.  Therefore,  even  in 
the  case  of  a  teacher  whose  duty  required  her  to  be  present 
during  only  those  193  sessions,  a  statement  that  an  absence 
of  34  days  constitutes  an  absence  of  one-fifth  of  a  school 
year,  is  manifestly  incorrect.  But  in  the  case  of  a  district 
superintendent,  the  incorrectness  of  such  a  statement  is 
far  greater. 

"  As  district  superintendent,  I  was  on  duty  not  only  dur- 
ing the  193  days  that  the  day  schools  were  in  session,  but 
also  during  the  120  nights  that  the  night  schools  were  in 
session,  and  the  48  days  that  the  Vacation  Playgrounds 
were  in  session,  and  the  30  days  that  the  Vacation  Schools 
were  in  session,  and  also  during  the  hours  between  3.30 


300         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

p.  M.  and  5  p.  m.  on  Mondays  and  Wednesdays  and  9  a.  m. 
and  II  A.  M.  on  Saturdays  that  the  City  Superintendent 
has  assigned  as  office  hours,  and  also  during  the  hours  of 
the  day  and  the  night  that  the  Local  School  Board  of  my 
districts  were  in  session,  and  also  during  the  many  hours 
before  9  a.  m.  and  after  3  P.  m.  when  I  was  in  conference 
at  my  home  and  office  and  the  Hall  of  Education  with 
parents,  principals,  superintendents  and  teachers,  and  also 
during  the  many  hours  on  Sundays  and  holidays  which  I 
have  devoted  to  my  work  as  district  superintendent.  In 
connection  with  the  above,  I  respectfully  submit  that  on 
July  I,  1907,  I  informed  the  City  Superintendent  that  I 
wanted  to  be  absent  fifteen  days  for  the  purpose  of  attend- 
ing the  Annual  Convention  of  the  National  Educational 
Association  at  Los  Angeles^  California.  On  the  ground 
that  I  was  on  duty  in  connection  with  the  Vacation  Schools 
and  Playgrounds,  the  City  Superintendent  refused  to  per- 
mit such  absence.  And  although  I  pointed  out  that  the 
Vacation  Schools  would  not  open  until  July  8,  1907,  and 
would  be  in  session  until  late  in  August,  and  that  there- 
fore I  would  have  time  to  inspect  the  schools  assigned  to 
me  after  my  return,  the  desired  approval  was  withheld. 
Furthermore,  during  the  eight  summers  since  my  election 
as  district  superintendent  I  have  been  on  duty  part  of 
July  and  August.  From  the  foregoing  it  is  evident  that 
any  statement  to  the  effect  that  an  absence  of  34  days  in 
one  year  on  the  part  of  a  district  superintendent  constitutes 
an  absence  of  one-fifth  of  a  year,  is  manifestly  incorrect 
and  unjust. 

"  I  am  now  serving  my  fifteenth  year  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Never  once  have  I  been 
absent  for  trivial  or  selfish  reasons.  Personal  illness  or 
illness  and  death  in  my  immediate  family,  with  but  one  ex- 
ception that  I  can  recall,  have  been  the  only  causes  of  ab- 
sence on  my  part  prior  to  January  i,  1907.  The  records 
of  this  department  will  show  that  I  have  never  received 
one  cent  refund  on  account  of  absence.  It  is  true  that 
during  some  of  my  absences  my  salary  has  been  paid  in 
full,  but  my  case  in  this  respect  is  not  unique. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        301 

"  The  report  referred  to  in  this  communication,  also  re- 
ferred to  a  previous  prolonged  absence  on  my  part.  It  is 
true  that  from  October  6,  1904,  to  February  19,  1905,  I 
was  a  hospital  patient  with  a  broken  arm.  During  all  that 
time,  though  submitting  to  an  anesthetic  thirty-two  times, 
and  suffering  almost  constant  and  agonizing  pain,  I  was  in 
daily  touch  with  my  office  and  the  affairs  in  my  twenty- 
one  schools.  Principals,  teachers  and  parents  came  to  the 
hospital  to  confer  with  me.  Miss  de  Buck  or  some  other 
clerk  brought  me  the  mail  and  other  matter  from  my 
office.  I  dictated  letters  and  reports  and  signed  thousands 
of  requisitions,  reports,  and  other  official  documents.  The 
Committee  on  Supplies,  learning  of  the  pain  and  difficulty 
under  which  I  was  laboring,  very  kindly  passed  a  resolu- 
tion permitting  my  stamped  signature  to  take  the  place  of 
my  personal  signature  on  requisitions.  Therefore,  refer- 
ence to  this  absence,  in  the  report  of  Mr.  Jonas's  Commit- 
tee, seems  ungracious,  if  not  unfair. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  pray  your  Honorable  Body  to  recon- 
sider the  report. 

"Very  respectfully  yours, 

"Grace  C.  Strachan." 

The  latest  action  of  the  Board  in  connection  with  our 
going  to  Albany  is  told  thus  by  the  Herald  of  April  29, 
1909: 

"  The  question  came  up  as  to  whether  permission  should 
be  granted  to  Miss  Grace  Strachan,  district  superintendent, 
and  seven  women  teachers  to  be  absent  from  school  and 
go  to  Albany  to  hear  the  decision  of  the  Legislature  in 
regard  to  the  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  the  latter  part  of 
the  week. 

"  Abraham  Stern,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ele- 
mentary Schools,  said: 

" '  The  teachers  want  to  go  to  Albany  to  buttonhole  the 
members  of  the  Legislature  and  this  Board  should  not 
allow  any  lobbying  by  school  teachers.' 

"  Joseph  E.  Cosgrove  defended  the  women.  '  The 
trouble  with  this  Board  is  that  more  sentiment  is  needed. 


302         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

What  is  eight  teachers  out  of  16,000?  I  think  the  Board 
shows  narrow  mindedness  if  it  denies  their  request.  And 
I  think  it  highly  improper  to  characterize  these  women 
teachers  as  "  lobbyists  "  and  to  say  that  they  want  to  go 
to  Albany  to  "  buttonhole  "  members  of  the  Legislature.' 

"  Thomas  J.  Higgins,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
the  Care  of  Buildings,  said  there  has  been  too  much  senti- 
ment shown  by  the  Board  to  the  teachers  and  that  the  re- 
quest should  not  be  granted.  Alrick  H.  Man  declared  the 
teachers  who  absent  themselves  to  go  to  Albany  should 
be  fined,  and  George  Freifeld  said: 

"  *  The  attitude  of  the  women  teachers  is  a  sordid  striv- 
ing after  more  money/ 

"  Nicholas  J.  Barrett,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Supplies,  said  that  no  courtesy  could  be  shown  to  Miss 
Strachan,  '  who,  though  she  is  the  highest  salaried  district 
superintendent,  does  not  seem  to  have  much  to  do,  but 
can  go  to  Albany  while  the  other  district  superintendents 
are  kept  busy  all  of  the  time.'  " 

The  following  day,  the  Gledhill-Foley  bill  passed  the 
Assembly  with  a  vote  of  126  to  14,  and  during  the  dis- 
cussion Charles  F.  Murphy,  though  voting  "  No,"  said : 

"  I  sympathize  with  this  great  body  of  our  public  serv- 
ants who  are  forbid  to  present  to  our  committees  in  this 
House  their  views  upon  this  bill.  They  should  have  the 
same  rights  which  are  accorded  to  the  corporation  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  the  Public  Service  Commission,  the 
railroad  interests,  the  telephone  interests,  the  Charter  Re- 
vision Commission  and  all  other  interests,  whether  public 
or  private. 

"  I  desire  to  take  off  my  hat  and  pay  my  respects  to 
that  band  of  masterly  women  who  have  for  the  past  few 
years  been  fighting  the  battle  which  they  consider  just  and 
right.  The  women  teaching  the  lower  grades  are  work- 
ing for  woefully  insufficient  compensation,  and  they  are 
leading  clean  and  wholesome  lives  under  adverse  circum- 
stances. I  know  many  of  them  who  are  working  for  six 
or  seven  hundred  dollars  a  year  and  endeavoring  to  repay 
a  serious  indebtedness  incurred  in  securing  their  education. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         303 

"The  chivalric  spirit  of  man  cannot  but  be  inspired  by 
the  plucky  battle  which  is  being  waged,  I  have  not  op- 
posed these  bills  for  political  effect,  and  I  deprecate  the 
cheap  politics  of  candidates  for  office  who  will  arrange  a 
plant  or  mill  in  public  meetings  so  that  an  issue  may  be 
raised  for  campaign  purposes  against  women  who  have  no 
forum  in  which  they  may  make  an  effective  defense  of 
their  principle." 

He  was  frequently  applauded. 

On  November  12,  1908,  I  sent  the  following  letter  to  the 
Eagle,  after  a  personal  interview  with  Hon.  St.  Clair  Mc- 
Kelway,  editor,  about  the  editorial  and  news  article  re- 
ferred to  in  my  letter,  and  after  securing  a  promise  from 
him  that  my  reply  would  be  given  the  same  prominence  as 
the  articles  to  which  it  referred.  The  promise  was  not 
kept,  though  the  letter  was  published: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

"  Many  of  the  women  teachers  who  read  your  recent 
editorial  on  '  Should  Keep  Out  of  Politics '  and  the  news 
article  entitled  '  Women  Teachers'  Aid  Hoodoo  to  Candi- 
dates'  ask  that  you  show  your  good  will  toward  all  your 
readers  by  setting  before  them  in  unprejudiced  statements 
both  sides  of  the  argument.  And  they  ask  particularly 
now  that  you  publish  this  letter  in  full  and  give  it  as  con- 
spicuous position  as  was  accorded  the  articles  above  re- 
ferred to. 

"  These  articles  stated  that  Senator  Travis  received  in 
the  recent  election  a  plurality  of  4,015  votes,  as  compared 
with  1,636  two  years  ago,  and  implied  that  this  increase 
is  due  solely  to  the  opposition  of  the  women  teachers. 

"  In  this  connection  we  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
two  years  ago  Chanler,  as  Democratic  candidate  for  lieu- 
tenant-governor, carried  Kings  County  by  over  25,000, 
while  this  year  Taft,  as  Republican  candidate  for  Presi- 
dent, carried  it  by  23,085.  How  does  the  Eagle  explain 
the  fact  that  Senator  Travis,  a  Republican,  ran  2,564  be- 
hind Taft  in  his  own  district? 

"  The  Eagle  of  November  4  said,   '  Harman    (Travis* 


304         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

opponent)  made  a  remarkable  rurl.    Harman  ran  ahead  of 
Bryan  2,564.' 

"  The  Standard-Union  (Rep.)  of  same  date  gave  Har- 
man 2,692  more  than  Bryan.  Harman  had  declared  him- 
self in  favor  of  the  women  teachers. 

"  From  Senator  Travis,  who  opposed  the  women  teach- 
ears,  let  us  turn  and  consider  the  case  of  Assemblyman 
Conklin  (Rep.),  who  introduced  the  Equal  Pay  Bill  in  the 
Assembly  both  in  1906  and  1907.  The  Globe  says :  *  This 
year  the  women-  made  a  stronger  fight  than  ever  before  in 
favor  of  Conklin.'  He  received  last  year  a  plurality  of  334. 
This  year  he  was  re-elected  by  1,719 — five  times  his  plu- 
rality of  1906. 

"  What  is  the  conclusion  here  ?  Did  the  aid  of  the 
women  teachers  prove  a  hoodoo  to  Mr.  Conklin  ?  He  again 
leads  all  the  local  candidates  in  his  district,  as  he  did  last 
year. 

"  The  case  of  still  another  friend  of  women  teachers  is 
that  of  Senator  White — the  father  of  the  *  White '  Equal 
Pay  Bill.  As  a  candidate  for  lieutenant-governor  on  the 
Republican  ticket  he  carried  Brooklyn  by  4,777,  although 
Chanler  as  candidate  for  governor  on  the  Democratic  ticket 
carried  this  borough  by  4,368 — a  difference  of  9,145  in  fa- 
vor of  Senator  White. 

"  We  hold  that  it  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  claim 
that  Senator's  White's  lead  was  due  to  the  assistance  of 
the  women  teachers  as  to  claim  that  the  lead  of  Senator 
Travis  was  due  to  the  opposition  of  the  women  teachers. 
The  Globe  says :  '  No  doubt  the  active  support  of  the 
women  was  a  great  help  to  him '  (Senator  White). 

"  The  Eagle's  figures  also  show  that  though  Lee,  Mur- 
phy and  Colne,  all  opponents  of  the  women  teachers'  bill, 
have  increased  pluralities  this  year,  they  ran  behind  the 
head  of  their  ticket  by  945,  812,  and  963,  respectively. 
Although  Taft  carried  Kings  County  by  23,085,  Green's 
(Rep.)  plurality  dropped  from  2,287  in  1906;  Chanler 
(Dem.)  carrying  Brooklyn  by  about  25,000,  to  1,071  in 
1907  and  927  in  1908.  He  ran  670  behind  Taft.  DeGroot 
(Rep.),  also  an  opponent  of  the  women  teachers,  ran  1,071 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         305 

behind  the  head  of  his  ticket.  These  figures  are  significant 
when  it  is  considered  that  other  RepubHcans,  who  did  not 
antagonize  the  women  teachers,  ran  well  along  with  their 
tickets — Weber  and  Surpless.  for  instance,  running  only 
57  and  71,  respectively,  behind  Taft. 

"Another  Assemblyman,  George  V.  Sheridan  (Dem.), 
Bronx,  who  has  been  conspicuous  as  an  opponent  of  the 
women  teachers,  suffered  a  decrease  in  his  plurality  from 
1,122  in  1907  to  786  in  1908,  though  his  Republican  oppo- 
nent had  come  out  openly  in  favor  of  the  women  teachers." 

Sheridan  was  defeated  in  1909. — G.  C.  S. 

Mr.  Brady's  letter  on  same  editorial  is  interesting: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

"As  an  old  reader  of  your  valuable  paper  and  one  of 
the  many  thankful  for  the  stand  you  took  for  Taft  and 
Hughes,  I  was  somewhat  surprised  to  read  your  editorial 
in  last  evening's  edition,  under  the  heading,  *  Should  Keep 
Out  of  Politics.'  You  give  several  sets  of  figures,  show- 
ing the  probable  effect  of  the  school  teachers'  opposition, 
which,  on  examination,  prove  exceedingly  misleading  and 
show  an  erroneous  conclusion. 

"If  your  statement  that  *  the  opposition  of  the  Inter- 
borough  Teachers'  Association  will  soon  equal  in  value  the 
indorsement  of  one  of  the  minor  parties '  is  true,  how  do 
you  account  for  the  showing  of  candidates  for  re-election 
in  whose  Assembly  districts  no  organized  effort  was  made 
at  all  by  the  teachers?  For  instance,  Charles  G.  Weber, 
in  the  Fifth  Assembly  District  (who,  by  the  way,  voted 
for  the  teachers'  bill)^  ran  behind  Mr.  Taft,  the  proper 
candidate  to  use  as  a  standard  for  comparison,  only  57 
votes,  and  Thomas  J.  Surpless,  in  the  Sixth  Assembly  Dis- 
trict (who  voted  against  the  teachers'  bill),  ran  but  71  be- 
hind Mr.  Taft.  Senator  Travis,  in  his  district,  ran  1,567 
behind  Mr.  Taft,  and  Messrs.  Lee,  DeGroot.  Colne,  Mur- 
phy and  Green  ran,  respectively,  945,  1,071,  963,  812  and 
670  behind  Taft. 

"  From    the     foregoing    comparative    figures     Messrs. 


306         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Weber  and  Surpless,  with  no  opposition  from  the  teachers, 
made  a  much  better  showing  than  any  of  the  other  candi- 
dates whom  you  mention  as  being  opposed  by  the  teachers ; 
so  that,  on  your  own  basis  of  computation,  the  teachers' 
opposition  must  be  deemed  effective.    .    .    . 

"  Harry  J.  Brady. 
"426  De  Kalb  Avenue,  November  7,  1908." 

Two  other  correspondents  who  resent  suggestion  that 
women  instructors  attend  to  their  knitting: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

"  On  November  6,  in  an  editorial  supporting  the  thesis 
that  women  teachers  should  keep  out  of  politics,  you  named 
a  number  of  instances  in  which  local  candidates,  opposed 
by  the  women,  were  elected  by  increased  pluralities,  and 
you  somewhat  plainly  implied  that  such  increases  showed 
added  strength  as  a  result  of  the  teachers'  opposition. 

"  Brooklynites  are  proud  of  the  willingness  with  which 
the  Eagle  is  accustomed  to  present  both  sides  of  a  ques- 
tion. I  am  relying  on  that  willingness  in  asking  you  to 
give  publicity  to  one  or  two  facts  which  seemed  to  have 
been  overlooked  by  the  writer  of  the  article  referred  to. 

"  A  local  candidate's  strength  is  probably  shown  quite 
as  clearly  by  the  comparison  which  his  plurahty  bears  to 
that  of  the  head  of  his  ticket  as  it  is  by  a  comparison  of 
his  plurality  at  one  election  with  that  at  another.  In  the 
Sixth  Senate  District,  according  to  the  revised  city  vote 
published  on  November  4,  Mr.  Taft  received  a  plurality  of 
6,579,  as  against  Mr.  Travis'  plurality  of  4,015.  In  the 
same  district,  Mr.  Harman  ran  1,300  votes  ahead  of  Mr. 
Bryan.  In  the  Eighteenth  Assembly  District,  Mr.  Taft's 
plurality  was  5,304,  Mr.  Lee's  3,759.  Here  Mr.  McGann 
ran  425  votes  ahead  of  Mr.  Bryan.  In  the  Fourth  Assem- 
bly District  in  Queens,  Mr.  Taft  had  a  plurality  of  2,625 ; 
Mr.  DeGroot  of  1,554,  while  Mr.  Robinson  ran  500  votes 
ahead  of  Mr.  Bryan. 

"  Though  the  Taft  *  landslide '  could  not  keep  the  plu- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         307 

ralities  of  the  local  Republican  candidates  in  question  up 
to  those  of  the  head  of  their  ticket,  it  would  hardly  be 
unfair  to  assume  that  it  had  somewhat  more  to  do  with 
their  increased  pluralities  than  had  the  opposition  of  the 
women  teachers.  It  would  hardly  be  unfair  to  believe  that 
one  of  the  factors  which  helped  these  gentlemen's  oppo- 
nents to  run  ahead  of  their  tickets  was  the  support  of  the 
women. 

"  Whether  the  teachers'  recent  political  activity  was  wise 
or  otherwise,  justice  would  seem  to  demand  a  considera- 
tion of  all  the  facts  of  the  case  in  an  impartial  discussion 
of  its  bearing  on  election  issues.  Justice  might  even  sug- 
gest a  reference  to  the  fact  that  such  activity  was  quite 
undoubtedly  a  factor  in  the  success  of  the  candidates  for 
whom  it  was  most  employed.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  Mr. 
Conklin  of  the  Twenty-first  Assembly  District,  Manhattan, 
and  to  the  present  Lieutenant-Governor-elect,  Horace 
White. 

"A  Friend  of  the  Women  Teachers. 

"  Brooklyn,  Nov.  7,  1908." 

Anent  the  same  election,  the  New  York  Globe  said: 

"  It  is  in  the  minor  contests  that  the  influence  of  the 
teachers  is  more  likely  to  be  felt.  The  men  teachers  pre- 
sented united,  determined  and  ceaseless  opposition  to  the 
re-election  of  Assemblyman  Conklin.  Last  year  he  re- 
ceived a  plurality  of  only  400.  This  year  the  women  made 
a  stronger  fight  than  ever  before  in  support  of  Conklin, 
and  he  was  re-elected  by  over  four  times  this  plurality,  or 
1,719.  In  the  same  district  White  received  a  plurality  of 
1,765,  and  Hughes  only  1,585. 

"  As  White  and  Conklin  were  the  particular  objects  of 
attack  of  the  men  who  were  repeatedly  to  *  kill  White  and 
bury  Conklin,'  the  women  teachers  feel  that  they  have  won 
a  great  victory  in  the  election  of  two  of  the  chief  advo- 
cates of  *  Equal  Pay.* 

"  John  Harman,  who  was  supported  by  the  women, 
*  made  a  remarkable  run,'  according  to  the  Brooklyn  Eagle, 


3o8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

which  adds  that  '  the  number  of  Republican  ballots  split 
in  favor  of  Harman  varied  from  lo  to  30  in  the  different 
election  districts.' 

"  There  are  two  facts,  however,  which  confuse  calcu- 
lations in  this  district.  The  men  teachers  also  favored 
Hughes  and  opposed  White,  but  Hughes  received  only 
2,510  plurality,  while  White  got  3,565." 

After  the  election  of  1907,  the  Eagle  printed  an  article 
along  the  same  lines.  I  wrote  to  the  men  whom  they  de- 
scribed as  having  suffered  on  account  of  their  allegiance  to 
the  women  teachers.     Following  is  a  characteristic  reply: 

"Albany,  April  10,  1908. 
"My  Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"  Replying  to  your  letter  in  regard  to  the  statement  re- 
cently published  that  my  action  in  connection  with  my  vote 
on  the  Equal  Pay  bill  had  cost  me  a  thousand  votes  or 
more,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  statement  is  abso- 
lutely false.  The  reduction  in  vote  was  due  entirely  to 
local  conditions.  The  first  year  I  ran  I  had  the  endorse- 
ment of  the  Independence  League  and  my  name  was  on 
two  tickets.  This  year  the  Independence  League  endorsed 
my  opponent  and  his  name  was  on  two  tickets.  The  num- 
ber of  votes  influenced  for  or  against  me  by  the  male 
teachers    .     .     .    amounts  to  zero. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  James  J.  Hoey." 

It  had  been  clear  throughout  that  the  animus  of  all  those 
who  attacked  the  women  teachers  for  political  activity  in 
this  gubernatorial  campaign  was  the  fact  that  they  be- 
lieved the  women  teachers  were  working  against  Governor 
Hughes.  Proof  of  this  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  not  one 
reference  was  made  by  them  to  the  pernicious  activity  of 
the  men  teachers,  I  use  the  word  "  pernicious  "  deliber- 
ately, because  I  believe  their  literature  distributed  during 
this  same  period,  copies  of  which  appear  below,  justifies  its 
use. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         309 

"  Men  Teachers'  and  Principals'  Association 
OF  THE  City  of  New  York. 

"  To  all  Delegates, 
"  Gentlemen : 

"  Lest  there  be  some  man  in  your  school  who  is  not 
apprised  of  the  exact  situation,  we  ask  that  you  circulate 
this  notice  among  all  men  in  your  school,  including  the 
Principal. 

"  Governor  Hughes  vetoed  the  *  Equal  Pay '  Bill.  Your 
association  stands  pledged  to  support  him  to  a  man  in  his 
race  for  the  Governorship.  You  certainly  must  all  know 
that  but  for  his  courageous  veto  the  bill  would  have  become 
a  law,  and  every  young  man  in  the  system  would  have 
suffered  a  decrease  in  his  maximum ;  and  all  men  have  lost 
forever  any  possibility  of  increase. 

"  The  least  you  can  do  is  to 

"VOTE   for   HUGHES 

irrespective  of  party  affiliation. 

"Urge  this  upon  all  your  friends  now  and  on  Election 
Day.    You  men  can  do  a  lot  if  you  try! 

"  Senator  White,  who  fathered  the  *  Equal  Pay '  Bill  in 
the  Senate,  is  running  for  Lieutenant-Governor  on  the  Re- 
publican ticket. 

"VOTE   AGAINST   WHITE." 

The  following  appeared  in  the  Brooklyn  Eagle,  October 
28,  1908: 

"  As  you  probably  know,  the  association  is  making  its 
trucial  fight  against  Conklin  in  the  Twenty-first  Assembly 
District.  We  have  laid  our  plans  carefully  and  now  need 
men,  good  men,  to  aid  in  a  whirlwind  campaign.  Your 
school  has  always  ranked  as  one  which  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
count  on.  We  need  every  man  in  your  school  for  every 
afternoon  and  evening,  beginning  Monday  evening,  the 
26th,  only  until  election.  There  is  quiet,  dignified  work  for 
each,  according  to  his  tastes. 

"  It  is  vitally  important  to  beat  this  man.     To  those  in- 


3IO         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

clined  to  hesitate  let  me  say  that  it  is  better  to  be  vigorously 
aggressive  now  and  by  beating  Conklin,  end  it  all,  than  to 
let  this  dissension  drag  along  in  the  schools,  ruining  the 
efficiency  of  the  service,  sapping  the  energies  of  the  teachers 
and  dragging  the  schools  back  into  politics  and  all  that  that 
entails. 

"  Let  us  be  men,  courageous  and  far-seeing,  believing 
that  in  the  end  all  will  see  that  we  have  served  the  schools 
more  than  ourselves  in  this  fight. 

"  Will  you  to-day  urge  upon  your  men  ready  response 
to  this  call.  I  want  every  available  man  to  meet  me  at  the 
Shenandoah  Club,  2305  Seventh  Avenue,  New  York,  on 
Monday  evening.  If  they  cannot  come  Monday  evening, 
then  at  their  first  opportunity.  I  shall  be  there  continually 
until  election.  Take  Subway  to  One  Hundred  and  Thirty- 
fifth  Street ;  walk  west  to  Seventh  Avenue  and  around  the 
corner.  Send  me,  in  the  enclosed  envelope,  a  list  of  the 
men  in  your  school  who  will  come  forward,  the  days  and 
evenings  they  can  give  and  their  residences. 

"  We  are  all  working  very  hard  for  the  interests  of  all. 
Will  you  help  us?" 

Two  copies  of  a  paper  called  "  The  New  York  School 
Master"  were  distributed.  The  matter  they  contained  ap- 
pears below : 

"THE  NEW  YORK  SCHOOL  MASTER 
More  culture  and  more  men  in  the  schools. 

Vol.  I         Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  October  20,  1908.         No.  3. 

VOTE  FOR  HUGHES! 

Republican  Candidate  for  Governor 

Because : — 

Governor  Hughes  saved  €very  young  man  $525  on  his 
maximum  salary  by  his  veto  of  the  White  ("Equal  Pay") 
Bill. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         311 

Governor  Hughes  saved  every  man  his  chance  of  ulti- 
mate increase  in  salary.  Had  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  Bill  be- 
come a  law,  the  necessity  of  raising  ten  women's  salary  to 
every  man's  increased,  would  have  forever  precluded  the 
possibility  of  any  increase. 

Governor  Hughes  will  lose  a  few  votes  because  he  vetoed 
the  White  Bill.  WE  MEN  should  respect  his  manly  stand 
for  what  he  considered  his  duty,  and  irrespective  of  party 
affiliation,  cast  our  votes  for  Hughes.  An  American  Execu- 
tive should  be  encouraged  to  fearlessly  perform  his  duty, 
irrespective  of  the  interests  he  may  injure. 

It  is  reported  that  Mr.  Chanler  if  elected  Governor,  will 
favor  an  "Equal  Pay"  Bill.  Can  YOU  support  your 
FAMILY  on  a  woman's  salary. 

VOTE  FOR  DEGROOT. 

Candidate  for  Assembly  in  Queens. 

His  action,  last  session,  as  a  member  of  The  Assembly's 
Cities'  Committee,  AGAINST  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  Bill,  has 
marked  him  for  defeat  by  the  Interboroughites  (to  say 
women  teachers  would  be  too  comprehensive). 

Page  2. 

VOTE  AND  WORK  AGAINST  CONKLIN,  Republican 
candidate  for  Assembly  in  the  21st  Assembly  District. 

BECAUSE:— 

He  has  insulted  every  MAN  in  the  schools,  in  public  de- 
bate and  in  private  conversation. 

He  introduced  The  "  Equal  Pay  "  Bill  in  the  Assembly, 
which  would  have  lowered  every  young  man's  maximum  by 
$525 ;  and  which  would  have  forever  prevented  any  man's 
schedule  being  increased. 

He  believes  that  men  should  not  be  employed  as  teachers. 
He  thinks  them  out  of  place  in  the  schools— elementary 
especially. 

A  vigorous  campaign  is  being  waged  against  this  man. 
If  you  live  in  his  district  or  are  willing  to  work  against 


312         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

him,  send  your  name  to  Austin  H.  Evans,  44  West  128th 
St.,  Manhattan. 

VOTE   AGAINST    WHITE— Republican    candidate    for 

Lieutenant-Governor. 
Because, 

He  is  a  scheming  poHtician  of  the  worst  order,  entirely 
antagonistic  to  every  reform  Governor  Hughes  has  at- 
tempted to  inaugurate. 

He  put  through  the  Senate  the  White  ("Equal  Pay") 
Bill,  which  swept  away  every  safeguard  provided  by  The 
Davis  Law,  thereby  willfully  seeking  to  throw  the  schools 
back  into  politics. 

VOTE  FOR  TRAVIS. 

He  made  a  cogent  argument  in  the  Senate  against  Miss 
Strachan's  unjust  bill.  Was,  in  consequence,  upbraided  by 
her  in  the  press.  On  Thursday  she  ordered  her  association 
to  defeat  him. 

Page  3. 

Published  Monthly  by 

The  Association  of  Men  Teachers 

and  Principals  of  the  City  of  \.         ' 

New  York. 

Under  the  direction  of  the 

Press  Committee. 

Bernard  Cronson,  Ex-Officio. 

James  J.  Sheppard  John  L.  Hulshof 

Charles  O.  Dewey  Roy  L.  Richardson 

Esle  F.  Randolph  Chas.  H.  Davis 

Edgar  S.  Shumway  F.  E.  Odell 

John  Liebermann  D.  D.  Wallstein 

Frederick  H.  Paine  Hadley  C.  Case 

R.  P..  Ellis,  Chairman, 

E.  49th  St.,  Mill  Lane,  Brooklyn. 

Wm.  E.  Barhite,  Secretary. 
Address  all   communications  to  the  Chairman. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         313 

Editor's  note: — 

Numerous  letters  have  been  received  by  the  Editor,  re- 
questing that  a  list  of  Assemblymen  and  Senators  who 
voted  for  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  Bill  be  published.  Inasmuch 
as  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  "  equal  pay  "  is  waning  greatly, 
the  Editor  suggests  that  each  man  visit  his  Assemblyman 
and  Senator,  and  their  opponents  if  possible,  and  ascertain 
how  they  intend  to  stand  this  year.  Many  changes  will  be 
found. 

Here  is  a  task  for  every  man  in  the  system.  As  soon  as 
a  candidate  has  declared  himself  for  or  against  us,  we  shall 
be  very  glad  to  be  apprised  immediately  of  the  fact,  and 
due  publicity  will  be  given.  The  Schoolmaster  will  be  is- 
sued weekly  during  the  campaign.  If  you  do  not  get  your 
copy,  write  us  at  once. 
Our  Civic  Duties. 

Schoolmen  should  take  an  interest  in  civic  affairs.  We 
are  failing  in  our  duty  as  representative  citizens  in  the 
community,  if  we  do  not  evince  the  same  intelligent  inter- 
est and  participation  in  the  administration  of  our  represen- 
tative form  of  government  that  we  seek  to  impress  upon 
coming  generations  as  its  inalienable  heritage  and  duty. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to  become  politicians 
or  ward  heelers.  It  does  mean,  however,  that  you  should 
know  your  representatives  in  the  Assembly,  the  Senate 
and  in  Congress,  and  that  they  should  know  you,  as  a 
teacher  living  in  their  district,  and  as  a  man  who  will  give 
their  actions  the  close  scrutiny  they  deserve. 

Therefore,  make  it  your  business,  whatever  your  party 
affiliations,  to  meet  your  present  Assemblyman  and  Sen- 
ator. They  can  always  be  found  at  their  political  clubs 
over  the  week-end.  Introduce  yourself — give  them  your 
card.  And  even  if  you  do  not  discuss  questions  with  them, 
give  them  occasion  to  observe  that  you  are  about  and  ex- 
ercising your  civic  rights." 

Other  literature  sent  out  by  the  male  teachers  is  equally 
illuminating. 


314         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

For  example : 
"DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION 

THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 
"  The  Stuyvesant  High  School 
"226  East  23d  Street 
"Frank  Rollins,  Principal. 

"  408  West  150th  Street,  N.  Y.  City. 
"October  28,  1907. 
"Dear  Sir: 

"Assemblyman  Conklin  of  the  21st  Assembly  District 
must  be  defeated  or  badly  scared  this  fall  by  men  teachers. 
Some  are  working  day  and  night  to  do  so.  Your  interest 
last  spring  encourages  us  to  ask  you  to  help  now.  Please 
visit  evenings,  Saturday  and  Sunday  afternoons — before 
election,  the  Republican  voters  whose  names  and  addresses 
are  on  the  inclosed  list.  The  names  on  the  back  (cross 
marked)  are  not  in  your  section.  Names  of  known  sup- 
porters of  Felix  are  crossed  off.  You  can  paste  this  on 
stiff  paper  for  more  convenient  use.  If  you  meet  with 
other  teachers,  get  them  to  help.  If  you  can't  visit  all 
voters — ^the  most  effective  influence — or  even  if  you  can,  it 
would  be  well  to  leave  a  statement  of  points  for  each  voter. 
Some  lines  of  attack: 

"  I.  Property  holders  and  rent  payers  don't  want  a  man 
who  joined  with  McCarren  and  White  and  trying,  through 
a  reckless  political  bill,  to  add  from  10  to  13  millions  to 
the  city  budget. 

"  2.  Conklin,  with  Brough  of  the  19th,  alone  among  Re- 
publican Assemblymen  from  Manhattan,  refused  to  sup- 
port the  Mayor's  veto  of  the  White  Bill  and  to  uphold 
home  rule  last  spring. 

"3.  To  judge  from  this  record,  a  vote  for  Conklin  is 
not  supporting  Hughes. 

"  4.  A  30-year-old  Assemblyman  has  more  *  nerve '  than 
wisdom,  to  insult  the  Board  of  Education  as  he  did  in 
several  speeches,  and  is  unfair  to  cast  ridicule,  for  political 
advantage,  upon  a  few  men  teachers  who  are  facing  500 
women  teachers  in  an  Assembly  hearing. 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         315 

"  5.  Felix,  the  Democratic  candidate,  is  a  school  teacher. 
As  a  Hebrew,  he  is  influential  and  a  member  of  the  syna- 
gogue.   These  points  for  teachers  and  Hebrews. 

"  6.  If  you  can't  meet  an  objection  to  Tammany,  at  least 
dissuade  from  voting  for  Conklin.  Scheppler,  the  Ind. 
League  Candidate,  is  a  leader  in  the  printers'  union  and 
a  strong  man — considerations  attractive  to  labor  men. 

"  Remember,  even  if  you  do  not  change  many  votes  in 
the  strong  Republican  section  in  which  you  will  work, 
much  will  be  gained  for  our  cause,  if  you  can  get  a  num- 
ber of  Republicans  to  express  to  Conklin  their  disapproval 
of  his  course  last  spring. 

"  Don't  fail  us.     We  have  a  great  chance  this  fall  to 
show  that  we  are  not  a  negligible  political  factor. 
"  Yours  respectfully, 
(Signed)  "Ambrose  Cort — Capt.  19th  Sen.  Dist." 

Mr.  Conklin  ran  ahead  of  his  ticket  by  over  300. 

"  On  two  different  occasions  within  the  space  of  one 
week,  the  association  made  attempts  to  have  a  number  of 
men  teachers  meet  the  candidate  for  Assembly  in  the  21st 
Assembly  District,  who  is  favorably  disposed  to  us. 

"  Both  attempts  were  failures.  Impression  made  upon 
the  candidate  was  not  one  to  inspire  poHtical  respect  for 
the  men  teachers. 

"  Another  meeting  is  called  for  next  Monday,  October 
19th,  at  4  p.  M.  at  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  5  West  125th  Street. 

"  It  is  important  for  the  success  of  the  coming  campaign 
of  your  association  that  you  attend,  just  to  show  that  you 
are  once  in  a  while  awake  to  your  interests,  and  that  you 
can  spare  an  hour  to  attend  to  them  yourself,  instead  of 
by  proxies  who  are  themselves  absent  from  the  meetings, 

"  Come  and  bring  as  many  friends  as  possible. 
"  Sincerely, 

"  Bernard  Cronson. 
"  Monday,  Oct.  19,  4  p.  m.,  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  5  West  125th  St." 


3i6         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Appeals  for  Money. 

"We,   the   undersigned,    teachers    of   P.    S.    No , 

Brooklyn,  hereby  agree  to  contribute  one  dollar  each  per 
month  for  the  months  of  February,  March  and  April, 
1908,  for  the*  purpose  of  an  educational  campaign,  the  same 
to  be  applied  to  dues  and  assessments  in  the  Association 
of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals  of  the  City  of  New  York. 


"  Name.  Feb'y 


March  |  April 


"  May  II,  1907. 
"  The  Association  of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals  of  the 
City  of  New  York 
"  Dr.  Wm.  L.  Ettingen,  Pres. 
"  To  the  Delegate : 

"  The  White  Bill  has  been  vetoed  by  the  Mayor.  This 
means : 

"  That  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  have  the  Bill  passed 
over  His  Honor's  veto. 

"  That  a  committee  from  our  Association  must  proceed 
at  once  to  Albany  and  stay  there  for  an  indefinite  number 
of  days. 

"  That  the  committee  will  incur  expenses  which  the  As- 
sociation must  meet. 

"  That  the  Association  has  no  endowment  fund  and  no 
money  outside  of  what  it  receives  from  the  men  teachers 
and  principals. 

"  Conclusion: 

"  Please  collect  from  all  who  have  not  yet  paid  their 
membership  dues  and  assessments;  then  fill  out  the  blank 
sent  to  you  several  days  ago,  and  send  money  and  blanks 
to 

"  Bernard  Cronson. 
"  129  W.  136  St.  Man. 

"  *  A  number  of  schools  have  already  paid  up  in  full 
and  sent  in  blanks.  A  printed  list  of  members,  the  amounts 
paid  by  each  and  membership  cards  will  be  sent  at  the  earli- 
est opportunity." 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        317 

"Association  of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals  of  the  City 
of  New  York 

"  Brooklyn,  October  26,  1908. 
"To  the  Delegates  and  Men: 

"Gentlemen:  It  is  very  important  that  the  dues  be 
forthcoming  at  this  time.  Will  you  kindly  collect  on  re- 
ceipt hereof  and  transmit  your  report  on  the  enclosed  blank 
to  the  Treasurer,  Dr.  David  H.  Holmes,  in  the  enclosed 
envelope.     He  will  issue  you  a  receipt. 

"  If  it  is  not  convenient  to  pay  all  just  at  this  time 
collect  all  you  can  and  give  date  of  payment  of  balance  in 
the  column  provided  on  the  blank. 

"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  most  aggressive  campaign 
and  need  these  funds.  To  those  few  who  may  not  favor 
aggressiveness,  say  that  it  is  better  to  end  this  dissension 
now,  once  for  all,  than  to  allow  it  to  drag  along  sapping 
the  energies  of  teachers,  perpeutating  lack  of  harmony  and 
ruining  the  efficiency  of  the  service. 

"  Let  all  men  support  their  organization  in  this  fight.  A 
decisive  victory  means  the  end  of  *  equal  pay.'  Fear  not 
to  ACT,  trusting  that  in  the  end  all  shall  see  that  we  have 
labored  more  for  the  good  of  the  system  than  for  our- 
selves. 

"  Faithfully  yours, 

"  Bernard  Cronson, 

"  President. 
"  David   H.   Holmes, 

"  Treasurer. 
"Dues,  $2. 
"R.  P.  Ellis, 
"  Chairman  Press  Committee." 

"  Principals'  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

"April  21,  1910. 
"  To  the  Men  Principals  of  New  York  City. 

"Gentlemen:  At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Principals' 
Association,  the  members  present  voted  that  each  male 
principal  of  the  city  be  requested  to  contribute  five  dollars 
to  a  fund  for  advancing  the  interests  of  the  schools. 


3i8         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

"  This  fund  is  not  to  be  used  in  defraying  the  routine 
expenses  of  the  association,  but  it  is  intended  to  satisfy  a 
special  and  very  important  claim  upon  the  resources  of 
every  man  in  the  schools. 

"  Please  send  your  contribution  to  Mr.  J.  J.  Driscoll, 
P.  S.  No.  i6,  Richmond. 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  RuFUS  A.  Vance, 
"  Charles  B.  Jameson,  President. 

"  Cor.  Secretary." 

Editorial,  Richmond  Hill  Record,  Saturday,  October  31, 
1908: 

"  DeGroot  and  the  Teachers. 

"  William  A.  DeGroot's  reply  to  attacks  upon  his  con- 
duct as  a  legislator  will  be  found  in  another  column.  In 
the  course  of  the  week  the  Record  has  received  many 
letters  from  its  friends  among  the  male  school  teachers 
asking  that  this  reply  be  published. 

"  Really,  the  Record  must  admit  that  it  does  not  know 
what,  at  present,  is  Mr.  DeGroot's  attitude  toward  the 
equal  pay  bill,  so  called.  The  Record  is  not  even  sure  that 
the  desire  of  the  male  teachers  to  have  Mr.  DeGroot's 
reply  published  indicates  that  they  regard  his  candidacy 
favorably, 

"  But,  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  male  teachers  be- 
lieve the  publication  of  Mr.  DeGroot's  reply  will  help  and 
not  hurt  his  candidacy,  their  interest  in  the  matter  would 
seem  to  show  that  Mr.  DeGroot  has  made  his  peace  with 
those  of  the  school  teachers  who  have  votes,  and  that  he 
is,  now,  opposed  to  the  so-called  equal  pay  bill. 

"  Into  the  merits  of  that  bill  the  Record  will  not  enter. 
Like  all  similar  bills,  it  had  good  and  bad  features. 

"  Some  time  ago  an  organization  of  school  teachers — 
the  kind  that  have  votes — was  formed  to  bend  Mr.  De- 
Groot's stubborn  will  to  theirs.  Apparently  he  bent  before 
he  broke. 

"  Some    time    ago    the    organization    referred    to    was 


Hon.    Horace   White, 

Father   of   "White"     'Equal   Pay"    Bills   of   1907    and   1908. 
Ijeutenant-Governok    of    New    York,    1909    and    1910. 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         319 

formed.  It  had  all  sorts  of  officers  and  committees.  The 
printing  was  done  in  this  office.  The  path  of  the  weekly 
newspaper  is  not  bestrewn  with  roses,  and  even  publishers 
must  eat  sometimes.  It  costs  money  to  print  long  letters, 
but  the  Record  prints  Mr.  DeGroot's  willingly.  One  of 
the  members  of  the  teachers'  organization  who  did  not 
communicate  with  this  office  was  the  treasurer.  We  would 
be  pleased  to  have  him  do  so. 
"  There's  a  reason." 

Richmond  Hill  Record,  October  3,  1908: 

"  Male  Teachers  Are  Angry. 

"So  Is  the  Record,  with  Much  Greater  Reason. 
"Conspiracy,  did  you  say?  Oh,  worse!  Simply  awful! 
A  dozen  letters  have  been  received  at  the  Record  office 
during  the  week,  of  which  the  following  is  a  fair  sample. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  all  are  from  male  school  teachers, 
and  each  has  some  grievance  as  a  pretext  for  the  letter 
and  each  winds  up  with  the  same  comment  on  Mr.  De- 
Groot  in  almost  exactly  the  same  words.     Some  remarked, 

*  Not  for  publication,'  so  the  names  of  the  writers  will  not 
be  given. 

"  Last  year  was  organized  the  Male  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion and  had  *  captains '  in  every  district.  The  Record  did 
some  printing  for  the  association,  and  even  at  this  late 
date  would  not  object  to  something  other  than  far-fetched 

*  grievances.' 

"  Last  year  DeGroot  was  not  quite  sure  about  his  vote 
on  the  equal  pay  bill  for  school  teachers.  This  year  Rob- 
inson, the  Democratic  candidate,  has  declared  himself  in 
favor  of  the  women.  Do  the  letters  to  the  Record  indicate 
that  DeGroot  has  made  promises  to  the  men? 

"  As  for  the  charges  of  the  unfairness  of  the  Record, 
they  are  twaddle.  The  columns  of  this  paper  are  always 
open  to  both  sides  on  any  question.  This  week  Mr.  De- 
Groot takes  up  more  than  his  share  of  space,  all  of  which 
was  arranged  for  before  these  indignant  school  teachers 
got  their  heads  together. 


320         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

"  Here  is  the  complaint : 

"  *  Editor  Richmond  Hill  Record. 

"  *  Dear  Sir :  About  a  year  ago  I  was  disgusted  with 
your  estimate  of  local  real  estate  values — encouraging 
readers  to  buy,  saying  that  property  would  soon  be  worth 
double  its  then  value,  etc.  Any  intelligent  man  cognizant 
to  the  least  degree  of  the  real  estate  situation  must  have 
known  that  such  an  estimate  was  unwarranted.  You  have 
treated  other  matters  in  a  way  equally  biased,  it  seems  to 
me.  Yet  a  newspaper  is  supposed  to  present  all  subjects 
to  its  readers,  without  prejudice  or  bias. 

"  '  Recently  you  have  criticised  Mr.  DeGroot.  Have  you 
been  fair  to  him?  Have  you  enumerated  all  that  he  has 
done  for  Queens?  In  the  matter  of  his  Commissioner  of 
Records  bill,  and  the  Hammitt  letter,  have  you  stated  his 
side  of  the  case  or  requested  him  to  do  so?  If  not,  why 
not? 

"  *  W.  E.  Hendrie. 

" '  Lester  Ave.,  Richmond  Hill/ 

"  As  proof  that  there  is  a  *  nigger '  somewhere,  it  Is  only 
necessary  to  state  that  the  criticism  of  Mr.  DeGroot  did 
not  in  any  way  refer  to  the  Equal  Pay  bill,  and  yet  every 
letter  received  by  the  Record  comes  from  a  male  teacher." 

Contrast  the  circular  sent  out  by  the  women  teachers: 

"  Notice. 

"Let  us  be  noted  for  our  appreciation  and  gratitude. 
.  "  Mr.  Robert  S.  Conklin,  Republican,  was  our  standard- 
bearer  in  the  Assembly.     He  is  seeking  re-election  in  the 
2 1  St  Assembly  District,  Manhattan,  being  the  territory  em- 
braced in  the  following: 

"  Beginning  at  the  foot  of  West  133d  street,  to  Amster- 
dam avenue,  to  West  130th  street,  to  Convent  avenue,  to 
Morningside  avenue  E,  to  West  123d  street,  to  Eighth 
avenue,  to  West  127th  street,  to  Fifth  avenue,  to  West 
135th  street,  to  Lenox  avenue,  to  West  136th  street,  to 
Seventh  avenue,  to  West  141st  street,  to  North  River. 


EQUAL  'PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         321 

"  Mr.  John  V.  Sheridan,  Democrat,  renominated  in  the 
35th  Assembly  District,  New  York,  and  Mr.  Warren  I.  Lee, 
Republican,  renominated  in  the  i8th  Assembly  District, 
Kings,  are  the  only  Assemblymen  from  the  City  of  New 
York  in  the  last  Assembly,  who  are  seeking  re-election, 
who  did  not  vote  for  our  bill  either  before  or  after  the 
Mayor's  veto. 

"  Interborough  Association  of  School  Teachers. 

"  N.  B. — All  other  Assemblymen  who  have  been  renom- 
inated voted  for  our  bill." 

As  evidence  that  our  course  in  taking  an  interest  in  pol- 
itics was  not  disapproved  by  all,  I  print  with  the  writer's 
permission,  the  following  from  a  letter  written  me  by  Hon. 
Clarence  R.  Freeman,  Alderman  Thirty-first  District,  New 
York. 

Extract  from  letter  of  October,  1907: 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  teachers  can  do  a  very  great  deal  in 
forwarding  their  legislation,  if  they  find  out  what  districts 
are  the  so-called  close  districts,  and  in  such  sections  ask  the 
candidates  on  either  side  for  an  expression  of  opinion  upon 
'  Equal  Pay '  platform,  and  whether  they  would  be  willing 
to  support  that  platform,  if  elected.  By  way  of  convincing 
candidates  that  it  is  worth  while  to  answer  such  questions, 
you  might  tabulate  the  names  and  addresses  and  total  num- 
ber of  women  teachers  and  s)mipathizers  residing  within  a 
given  district. 

"  Personal  letters  written  by  the  teachers  to  their  friends 
asking  for  the  support  of  some  special  candidate,  are  very 
effective.  Also,  the  enlistment  of  the  active  aid  of  the  male 
relatives  of  all  such  teachers.  From  experience,  I  can  say 
that  a  handful  of  workers,  if  determined,  can  make  300  or 
400  votes  for  any  reputable  candidate." 

New  York  Globe,  October  31,  1909. 
School  Editor  of  the  Globe: 

"  Sir :    Will  you  kindly  inform  me  where  I  can  get  a  bal- 


322         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

lot  to  conform  to  the  wishes  of  '  Equal  Pay  for  Equal 
Work  ? '  I  want  to  vote  for  those  who  favor  the  idea  and 
scratch  those  who  do  not.  I  also  protest  against  the  action 
of  the  Board  of  Education  in  attempting  to  deprive  their 
teachers  of  the  rights  of  citizens. 
"  Manhattan,  Oct.  29.  A  Citizen." 


("You  could  probably  secure  the  information  by  address- 
ing the  president  of  the  Women  Teachers'  Association,  Miss 
Grace  C.  Strachan,  Brooklyn.  You  reside  in  Assemblyman 
Conklin's  district.  He  introduced  the  women  teachers'  bill. 
Governor  Hughes  vetoed  it.  Messrs.  Chanler,  Whalen, 
Hauser  and  all  the  present  state  officers,  except  Governor 
Hughes,  gave  assistance  to  the  women  during  their  cam- 
paign. Senator  White,  the  Republican  candidate  for  lieu- 
tenant-governor is  the  author  of  the  '  White  Equal  Pay ' 
bill  vetoed  by  Governor  Hughes.  The  women  are  not  al- 
lied with  any  party,  but  are  supporting  those  persons  who 
aided  them  in  their  campaign  or  who  favor  the  '  equal  pay  ' 
principle." — School  Editor.) 

New  York,  October  9,  1907. 
"Dear  Madam: 

"  The  part  that  I  took  during  the  last  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  New  York  City 
school  teachers  is  no  d)oubt  still  fresh  in  your  mind.  At  all 
times  I  had  charge  of  the  Equalization  Bill,  and  twice  suc- 
ceeded in  passing  it  in  the  Assembly.  In  addition,  I  fre- 
quently acted  as  advisory  counsel  to  the  Interborough  Asso- 
ciation in  its  campaign. 

"  I  have  been  renominated  for  Member  of  Assembly  by 
the  Republican  organization  of  this  21st  Assembly  District, 
and  I  am  writing  to  ask  your  support,  and  through  you  that 
of  your  friends  and  relatives.  As  this  is  what  is  sometimes 
described  as  an  *  off '  year,  many  citizens  will  not  register 
and  vote  unless  urged  to  do  so.  I  am  depending  upon  you 
to  do  all  you  can  to  bring  about  my  re-election.    We  need 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         323 

every  vote  we  can  get.    If  citizens  do  not  register  they  can- 
'not  vote.     Ask  them  to  register  and  vote.     Last  day  of 
registration  is  Monday,  October  14,  1907. 
"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  Robert  S.  Conklin, 
"  Member  of  Assembly, 

**2ist  Assembly  District." 
Department  of  Latin, 
The  Morris  High  School, 
i66th  Street  and  Boston  Road. 

May  I,  1907. 
"  Assemblytnan  Conklin, 

"Dear  Sir: — I  am  writing  you  again  with  reference  to 
the  White  Bill  for  which  you  voted  for  reasons  best  known 
to  yourself.  The  enclosed  clipping  voices  the  sentiments  of 
sane  and  fair-minded  citizens.  Furthermore,  the  male 
teachers  in  your  district  have  organized  and  are  about  to 
pledge  their  support  to  the  men  who  favor  their  interests 
in  this  bit  of  legislation.  I  am  captain  of  the  High  School 
division  of  about  thirty  men,  who  represent  five  times  as 
many  votes.  There  is  hardly  a  man  among  us  who  is  not  a 
member  of  some  fraternal  order  or  organization  in  which 
he  can  influence  votes.  It  might  pay  you  to  bear  this  in 
mind  when  the  bill  comes  to  you  after  the  mayor's  veto — if 
such  a  joke  bill  ever  does  come  back. 

"  Very  truly, 

"  Austin  Hall  Evans.'* 

"  44  W.  128. 

"  May  3,  1907. 
"  Mr.  Austin  H.  Evans,  Esq., 
"44  IV est  128th  St.: 
"  I  have  before  me  your  letters  of  April  29th  and  May 
1st,  respectively.    In  courtesy  I  should  answer  the  former, 
the  discourtesy  of  the  latter  requires  that  it  should  receive 
some  attention.    Permit  me  to  suggest  that  if  you  desire  to 
influence  members  of  the  legislature  you  are  adopting  ex- 
tremely injudicious  methods  in  attempting  to  do  so. 


324         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

"  It  is  not  unusual  to  find  among  people  of  a  low  order 
of  intelligence  and  morality  a  conception  of  public  officials 
as  men  so  lacking  in  decency  and  courage  as  to  be  swayed 
in  the  discharge  of  duty  by  threats  as  to  their  political 
welfare. 

"  We  have,  however,  a  right  to  expect  a  more  wholesome 
attitude  to  prevail  among  people  of  education  and  culture 
to  which  class  your  position  and  language  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  you  belong.  And  in  the  most  friendly  spirit, 
I  suggest  that  before  writing  any  other  letters  of  like  char- 
acter to  other  legislators,  you  and  your  associates  carefully 
read  Sections  46,  67  and  127  of  the  Penal  Code. 

"  In  the  matter  in  which  you  are  interested  as  in  all  other 
matters  that  have  come  before  the  legislature,  I  have  acted 
according  to  my  best  judgment  and  conscientiously  in  the 
interests  of  the  public  at  large  rather  than  in  the  interests 
of  any  particular  class.  With  all  due  respect  to  your  polit- 
ical power,  I  shall  continue  to  act  according  to  my  best 
judgment  and  ask  no  support  from  those  who  would  re- 
quire anything  else  of  me. 

"  We  have  carefully  Considered  this  school  question  and 
given  a  most  respectful  hearing  to  the  male  teachers.  We 
have  been  unable  to  see,  from  any  argument  presented, 
wherein  the  men's  present  financial  position  would  in  any 
way  be  affected. 

"  I  think  on  sober  reflection  that  you  will  come  to  realize 
that  there  has  been  a  rather  unwise  show  of  temper  in  the 
matter. 

"Just  what  will  be  done  in  the  event  of  a  veto  by  the 
mayor,  I  am  not  now  prepared  to  say.  But  you  can  rest  as- 
sured that  threats  will  have  a  tendency  to  facilitate  the  bill's 
passage  over  the  mayor's  veto  rather  than  to  retard  it.  It 
will  have  to  be  considered  in  a  somewhat  different  light 
than  on  its  original  passage,  but  in  the  interests  of  whole- 
some civil  spirit,  I  assure  you  that  whatever  action  is  taken, 
will  be  taken  irrespective  of  its  vote  getting  or  vote  losing 
influences. 

"Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)  "Robert  S.  Conklin." 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         325 

"April  3,  1908. 
"  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan, 
"293  Henry  St., 

"Brooklyn,  N,  Y. 
"My  dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"I  regret  to  inform  you  that  at  tlie  last  session  of  the 
Cities  Committee  last  night  I  could  not  secure  the  report 
of  the  Teachers'  Bill.  We  were  in  session  until  half-past 
one  o'clock.  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  in  violation  of  our 
pledge  to  say  nothing  of  proceedings  in  executive  session 
for  me  to  tell  you  that  you  have  a  very  strong  ally  in  Mr. 
Smith ;  he  has  made  a  very  vigorous  fight  for  the  bill  and 
it  has  at  times  looked  as  if  we  would  carry  the  proposi- 
tion. I  have  all  along  thought  that  the  Committee  would 
release  this  bill  towards  the  end  of  the  session;  it  now 
appears  that  I  was  mistaken.  If  there  had  been  a  full 
attendance  of  the  house  this  morning  I  should  probably 
have  moved  to  discharge  the  Committee  from  further  con- 
sideration of  the  bill  because  this  was  the  last  day  on 
which  that  could  be  done.  There  were  not  over  seventy 
(70)  members  present  in  the  house,  however.  It  may 
possibly  be  that  the  Rules  Committee  will  report  the  meas- 
ure. The  Rules  Committee  will  be  guided  of  course  by 
the  attitude  of  the  Speaker.  Senator  White,  if  he  takes 
a  vigorous  stand  on  this  proposition,  has  powerful  influ- 
ence in  this  branch  of  the  Legislature.  He  may  be  able  to 
get  it  out.  The  only  other  member  of  the  Rules  Com- 
mittee besides  the  speaker  on  whom  you  can  probably  make 
any  impression  is  Mr.  Merritt. 

"  Again  expressing  my  regret  and  disappointment  at  my 
inability  to  bring  about  results  satisfactory  to  yourself,  I 
remain, 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)  "Robert  S.  Conklin." 

"Oct.  10,  1908. 
"  Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"  In  response  to  a  notice  sent  out  by  A.  H.  Evans,  the 
Vice-President  of  the  men  teachers  of  Manhattan,  a  meet- 


326         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

ing  was  held  yesterday  afternoon  at  the  Harlem  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  It  was  well  attended  by  these  gentlemen.  The  news  I 
get  is  to  the  effect  that  they  are  much  better  equipped  with 
funds  this  year  than  they  were  last,  and  that  they  are  to 
work  with  better  organization  than  they  have  heretofore. 
It  was  stated  at  the  meeting  that  I  was  to  be  the  partic- 
ular object  of  attack  in  order  that  an  example  might  be 
set  to  other  evil-doers.  I  believe  that  they  have  some 
scheme  for  trying  to  operate  in  the  negro  districts,  of 
which  we  have  several. 

"  I  do  not  think,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  is  a 
national  election,  that  any  of  the  local  candidates  will  be 
in  any  danger  if  the  district  goes  for  the  national  ticket. 
For  the  present  I  simply  wish  to  call  the  proceedings  at 
this  meeting  to  your  attention  in  order  that  you  may  con- 
sider them  in  your  deliberations. 

"  Very  respectfully  yours, 

(Signed)  "Robert  S.  Conklin." 

"  New  York,  Oct.  29,  1907. 
"My  Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"  As  one  of  the  registered  voters  of  the  district, 

I  received  the  circular  sent  out  by  the  Interborough  Teach- 
ers and  am  very  much  pleased  with  the  same.  The  men 
teachers  have,  I  understand,  had  a  meeting  which  was  at- 
tended by  invitation  by  my  opponent,  •  , 

whose  card  I  enclose.  They  are  working  openly  against 
me  now  and  are  preparing,  I  understand,  to  send  out  mat- 
ter in  opposition  to  me  this  week, 

"  Assemblyman had  a  good  idea.    He  sent  to  each 

teacher  in  his  district  a  list  of  the  voters  in  the  house  in 
which  she  lived,  and  asked  her  to  see  everyone  of  them. 
If  it  had  occurred  to  me,  I  should  have  had  the  circular 
you  sent  the  teachers  make  the  same  suggestion  and  en- 
closed a  list  of  voters  from  the  City  Record.  However 
the  matter  may  turn  out,  I  want  to  thank  you  for  the  way 
in  which  you  have  *  made  good  "  in  my  behalf. 
"  Very  truly  yours, 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         327 
Extract  from  letter  of  Oct.  2,  1907: 

"As  you  are  aware,  I  am  again  a  candidate  for  the 
Assembly  and  hope  to  be  re-nominated  on  Friday.  My 
District  is  the    *     *     * 

"  I  intend  writing  to  every  teacher  living  in  that  neigh- 
borhood and  I  hope  that  you  and  your  friends  will  be 
able  to  assist  me  in  not  only  getting  out  the  registered 
vote,  but  by  the  votes  of  your  friends.  I  shall  be  very 
glad  to  have  a  letter  from  you  that  I  could  use  to  the 
teachers  of  my  district. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 


In  the  campaign  of  1909,  we  sent  the  following  letter 
to  each  Alderman,  Member  of  Assembly,  and  any  candi- 
date for  city  office  which  involves  membership  in  the 
Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment: 

Brooklyn,  October  11,  1909. 

To , 

Candidate  for  . 

Dear  Sir: 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  is 
an  organization  whose  membership  comprises  more  than 
twelve  thousand  women  in  the  public  schools  of  the  City 
of  New  York. 

Since  April,  1906,  this  Association  has  been  striving  to 
secure  such  amendment  of  the  salary  schedules  under 
which  the  teachers  are  paid,  as  will  abolish  the  discrim- 
inations against  women. 

The  Department  of  Education  is  the  only  city  depart- 
ment which  is  excepted  from  the  provisions  of  the  Civil 
Service  Law. 

In  no  other  department  does  the  salary  of  a  position 
vary  with  the  sex  of  the  incumbent. 

This  Association  is  naturally  and  properly  desirous  of 
knowing  your  attitude  on  this  matter,  and  begs  a  reply 
to  the   following  question: 

Do  yoti  believe  that  all  city  employees  whose  appoint- 


328         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

ment  is  made  from  an  eligible  list,  should  be  paid  accord- 
ing to  the  position  held,  without  regard  to  the  sex  of  the 
employee  f 

Should  you  so  desire,  a  committee  representing  our  As- 
sociation will  be  pleased  to  call  upon  you  at  your  con- 
venience, outside  of  school  hours. 

Very  respectfully, 

Isabel  A.  Ennis,  Secretary. 
Please  send  reply  to: 

Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan, 
1308  Pacific  Street, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  replies  in  whole  or  in 
part: 

"October  15,  1909. 
"Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan, 
"  1308  Pacific  Street, 
"  Brooklyn. 
"My  Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"I  have  your  circular  favor  of  the  nth  instant  in  which 
you  request  an  expression  of  my  views  on  the  subject  of 
equal  payment  for  equal  service  to  school  teachers  of  both 
sexes. 

"  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  I  am  very  much  in 
sympathy  with  your  contention  on  this  subject,  and  I  fully 
feel  with  you  that  all  city  employees  whose  appointment 
is  made  from  an  eligible  list  should  be  paid  according  to 
the  position  held  without  regard  to  the  sex  of  the  employe, 
"  If  the  committee  which  you  so  kindly  say  will  be 
pleased  to  call  upon  me  can  offer  any  practical  suggestion 
by  which  I  can  aid  your  Association  to  bring  about  that 
result,  I  shall  be  very  glad  indeed  to  see  the  committee 
at  its  own  convenience. 

"  Sincerely, 

"John  H.  McCooey." 

"As  a  matter  of  principle  I  do  believe  that  municipal 
employees  should  be  paid  without  regard  to  the  sex  of 
the  employe.    Without  ever  having  made  a  study  of  the 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         329 

application  of  this  principle  to  the  public  school  teachers 
of  New  York  City,  my  convictions  have  always  been  upon 
the  side  of  equal  salaries  for  men  and  women  teachers. 

"  Before  passing  upon  the  question  finally,  however,  and 
certainly  before  taking  any  official  action  upon  it,  should 
it  be  my  good  fortune  to  be  elected  to  the  office  for  which 
I  am  now  a  candidate,  I  wish  to  have  before  me  all  the 
facts  bearing  upon  the  question,  as,  for  instance,  the  char- 
acter of  work  done  by  the  teachers  of  both  sexes. 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

"John  Purroy  Mitchell." 

"My  Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"  I  have  received  one  of  your  circulars  wanting  to 
know  where  we  stand.  I  presume  it  was  sent  to  me  be- 
cause I  am  on  the  list  of  candidates — in  other  words,  am 
enjoying  a  little  distinction  for  a  few  brief  weeks — but 
you  know  where  I  stand — don't  you  ?  I  have  not  changed 
my  views  one  iota  from  what  I  said  at  the  meeting  in 
March,  1908. 

"  With  very  best  wishes,  believe  me, 
"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  William  A.  Prendergast." 


"  New  Brighton,  N.  Y.,  Oct.  16,  1909. 
"Dear  Miss  Strachan: 

"In  reply  to  your  circular  of  October  nth,  1909,  I  de- 
sire to  say,  in  answer  to  question  asked,  that  I  believe  that 
all  city  employees,  whose  appointments  are  made  from 
eligible  lists,  should  be  paid  according  to  the  position  held, 
without  regard  to  sex  of  the  employee.  This  has  always 
been  my  stand  in  this  matter,  and  anything  that  I  can  do 
in  my  humble  way  towards  helping  you  I  will  be  pleased 
to  do. 
"  Wishing  you  success,  I  am, 

"  Yours  truly, 
"Charles  J.  McCormack, 
"  Democratic  Candidate   for  Borough 
President  of   Richmond." 


330         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 
Democracy  of  November  6,  1909,  said: 

"With  Mayor-elect  Gaynor,  John  Purroy  Mitchell, 
President-elect  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  and  William  A. 
Prendergast,  as  the  next  Comptroller,  the  women  teach- 
ers of  Greater  New  York  are  more  than  ever  confident 
of  success  in  their  campaign  for  equal  pay.  All  three  men 
are  known  to  be  in  favor  of  the  equal  pay  bill. 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Interborough  Association  held  in 
May  of  1908,  Judge  Gaynor  was  the  presiding  officer, 
with  Mr.  Prendergast  as  the  speaker  of  the  evening. 

"  Practically  all  the  candidates  for  either  Alderman  or 
Assemblyman,  who  have  pronounced  themselves  in  favor 
of  the  equal  pay  bill,  have  been  re-elected,  Assemblyman 
Conklin,  who  twice  introduced  the  Equal  Pay  bill,  was 
re-elected,  as  was  Assemblyman  Foley,  the  introducer  of 
the  Gledhill-Foley  bill.  Assemblyman  Sheridan  of  the 
Bronx,  who  has  for  three  years  in  succession  voted  against 
the  bill,  was  this  year  defeated.  Assemblyman  Warren  I. 
Lee,  who  is  known  to  be  against  the  bill,  has  been  re- 
elected. Thomas  P.  Peters,  Republican  candidate  for 
Register,  and  one  of  the  women  teachers'  greatest  op- 
ponents, was  defeated  by  a  greater  majority  than  any 
candidate  on  the  Kings  County  Republican  ticket." 

"  I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  the  equal  pay  movement. 
I  believe  that  women  should  get  the  same  pay  as  men  for 
the  same  work.  If  a  woman  is  considered  competent 
enough  to  be  placed  in  charge  of  certain  work,  her  sex 
should  not  be  considered,  for  really  that  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  matter.  She  should  be  paid  for  the  work, 
not  because  she  happens  to  be  a  woman,  but  because  she 
is  entitled  to  the  standard  of  wages,  whatever  that  be. — 
Robert  R.  Moore,  Democratic  candidate  for  Comp- 
troller." 

One  hundred  fifteen  answers  were  received.  Only  one, 
that  of  Cyrus  C.  Miller,*  was  unfavorable.     Three  were 

*  Mr.  Miller's  letter  appears  in  Part  IV. 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         331 

noncommittal.  One  hundred  eleven,  that  is,  96.5  per  cent., 
were  favorable.  Mr.  Miller  was  elected  President  of  the 
Bronx,  but  his  success  was  largely  due  to  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Louis  Haffen  split  the  Democratic  vote  by  running 
on  an  independent  ticket.  The  only  New  York  City  Dem- 
ocrat in  either  house,  who  voted  against  the  Equal  Pay 
bills,  Mr.  John  V.  Sheridan,  of  the  Bronx,  was  defeated 
in  this  election.  Thirty-five  of  the  candidates  for  As- 
sembly had  previously  voted  for  the  Equal  P^y  bills, 
thirty-one  were  re-elected.  Of  the  four  who  were  de- 
feated, two  were  in  Queens  districts,  and  as  the  Queens 
County  Republican  organization  has  always  been  most 
friendly  to  the  women  teachers'  cause,  we  had  to  be  neu- 
tral. Another  was  Mr.  Cuvillier,  of  the  30th  district.  New 
York,  who  was  prevented  by  a  serious  attack  of  pneu- 
monia from  taking  any  part  in  the  campaign,  and  whose 
opponent,  Peter  Donovan,  was  on  the  Fusion  ticket  and 
was  an  avowed  friend  of  "Equal  Pay."  The  fourth  was 
Adolph  Stern,  of  the  6th  district,  New  York. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

BIRD  STORY 

Once  upon  a  time  a  plain,  ordinary  Woman  Teacher 
went  to  see  a  Lady  of  High  Degree.  She  wanted  to  make 
the  Lady  understand  the  "  Women  Teachers'  Cause." 
She  cared  not  that  the  door  was  opened  noiselessly  by  a 
noiseless  liveried  man  and  that  she  was  conducted  noise- 
lessly up  a  beautiful  staircase  to  a  beautiful  library 
wherein  was  the  Lady  of  High  Degree.  She  cared  not 
for  the  big  blazing  log  fire,  cared  not  for  the  perfectly 
appointed  tea  table  that  a  flunkey  in  satin  knee  breeches 
and  white  stockings  and  buckled  shoes  rolled  into  proxim- 
ity to  her — the  plain,  ordinary  woman  teacher — and  the 
Lady  of  High  Degree.  She  cared  not  for  the  tea  and 
the  cakes  and  the  bonbons,  so  charmingly  served  by  so 
charming  a  Lady,  though  she  could  not  but  take  note  of 
the  beautiful,  perfect  hands  as  they  daintily  flitted  among 
the  tea  things  or  lay  on  the  folds  of  the  pretty  blue  silk 
negligee  the  Lady  wore,  and  she  thought,  "  I  suppose, 
she  need  never  even  wash  those  hands  of  her  very  own, 
if  she  doesn't  want  to."  But  indeed  she  cared  not  for  all 
these  trifling  things.  Hers  was  a  serious  mission.  This 
Lady  of  High  Degree  had  power  to  assist  the  thousands 
of  women  teachers  whom  she  represented.  Nor  was  that 
all :  to  assist  them  was  to  uplift  all  womankind.  The  Lady 
of  High  Degree  would  herself  be  uplifted.  So  the  plain, 
ordinary  Woman  Teacher  talked  and  talked  and  strove 
to  put  into  her  words  all  that  she  felt  and  all  that  she 
meant — labored  hard  to  make  that  Lady  of  High  Degree 
see  why  she  and  fifteen  thousand  other  women  teachers 
had  banded  together  and  were  waging  a  war  against  ex- 
isting laws.  She  answered  many  questions  and  tried  to 
clear  up  many  doubts.     And  when  a  long  time  had  gone 

332 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         333 

by,  and  she  was  hoping  the  day  was  won,  the  Lady  of 
High  Degree  said :  "  I  thank  you  very  much.  I  am  most 
interested.  But  I  am  not  sure  that  women  can  do  the 
same  work  as  men.  I  am  not  certain  that  it  is  in  nature 
for  them  to  do  so.  Now,  I  am  very  much  interested  in 
birds.  In  fact,  I  have  an  aviary  on  my  top  floor  and  I 
spend  much  time  there.  And  I  have  been  watching  those 
birds,  and  I  must  say,  /  notice  that  the  work  of  the  male 
birds  is  very  different  from  the  work  of  the  female  birds." 
And  that  night  as  the  tired  Woman  Teacher  lay  awake, 
she  thought,  "  What's  the  use !  We  don't  speak  the  same 
language." 


PART  TWO— CHAPTER   ONE 
IN  ASSEMBLY  HEARING,  MARCH,  s,  1907 

Robert  S.  Conklin: — In  behalf  of  10,000  to  15,000  citizens  who 
don't  consider  it  reprehensible  to  favor  this  question  I  present  these 
petitions  signed  by  them  in  refutation  of  the  position  that  has  been 
taken  by  Judge  Butts. 

I  can't  hope  to  answer  all  of  the  arguments,  that  have  been  ad- 
vanced by  so  many  speakers  on  the  other  side,  1)ut  only  rise  to  de- 
fend my  own  position  in  having  introduced  this  bill  in  the  Assembly. 
I  think  one  of  the  speakers  on  the  other  side  has  referred  to  a 
college  professor  as  authority  for  his  own  position.  There  is  an- 
other one  of  the  foremost  authorities  on  municipal  government  in 
the  world,  one  under  whom  I  studied,  one  whose  works  are  read 
and  are  a  basis  for  study  in  every  college  throughout  the  country — 
Professor  Goodnow,  of  Columbia — and  I  may  say  that  he  is  one  of 
the  foremost  home  rulers  in  America  to-day?  Yet,  on  pages  83 
and  84  of  his  book  of  municipal  problems,  I  find  this  quotation : 

"  Experience  has  shown  that  the  common  schools  could  not,  with 
due  regard  to  their  best  interests,  be  left  in  the  controlled  manage- 
ment of  local  bodies.  In  some  states,  as  in  New  York,  the  powers 
of  the  central  authority  are  very  large.  There  is  no  question  that 
the  adoption  of  the  central  administration  of  control  has  been  of 
the  greatest  benefit  in  the  field  of  education." 

Some  twenty-five  years  ago  there  came  to  this  chamber  a  young 
man  from  New  York  City,  and  he  at  that  time  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  great  reputation  as  a  reformer.  He  was  one  who  was  al- 
ways fighting  for  the  best  that  could  be  had  for  cities,  for  govern- 
ment at  large,  for  the  interests  of  the  people.  He  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  his  reputation  at  that  time.  Subsequently,  when  he  was 
Governor  of  this  State  in  1899,  this  man,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  earnest  advocate  of  home  rule  for  cities,  made  the 
initial  step  in  the  question  of  education,  and  provided  that  the  board 
of  education,  or  rather  the  City  of  New  York,  would  be  compelled 
to  pay  to  the  teachers  in  the  educational  system  something  like  liv- 
ing compensation.  The  ratification  of  that  man's  position  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  he  has  since  been  advanced  from  the  position  of 
Governor  to  the  Executive  of  the  United  States — Theodore  Roose- 
velt. 

It  was  he  who  first  had  enacted  into  law,  who  himself  signed  this 
Davis  law,  which  we  are  only  seeking  to  amend.  We  are  not  seek- 
ing for  any  further  encroachment  upon  the  powers  of  the  city  au- 

334 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        335 

thority  than  is  authorized  by  this  Davis  law.  Now  let  us  see 
wherein  the  justification  lies. 

It  has  well  been  said  by  Judge  Butts  that  the  State  Legislature 
has  not  so  far  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  conditions  in  any 
other  city  throughout  the  state.  But  are  not  the  conditions  in  New 
York  City  such  as  to  warrant  the  interference  of  the  legislature? 
Why,  this  legislature  here  to-day  is  bending  and  swaying  at  times, 
under  public  opinion  generated  in  New  York  City,  by  the  public 
school  children  of  some  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago.  Isn't  it  within 
the  province  of  this  legislature,  to  see  that  that  public  opinion  is 
properly  formed,  and  how  is  it  to  see  to  it  unless  it  provides  for 
the  proper  education  of  those  children? 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  main  matter  for  this  committee  to  con- 
sider is  whether  this  legislature  has  the  right  to  butt  in  and  try  to 
regulate  salaries  in  the  City  of  New  York.  As  to  the  qualifications 
of  men  teachers  or  women  teachers,  we  have  two  exhibits  here. 
Look  at  this  picture  (pointing  to  women  teachers)  ;  and  then  on 
that  (pointing  to  men  teachers).  And  I  must  submit  the  case 
without  argument. 

Now,  the  question  to  be  considered  is  whether  the  City  of  New 
York  is  doing  its  simple  duty.  It  has  the  money  to  spend.  Year 
after  year  they  are  increasing  salaries  down  there.  And  what  have 
they  done  for  the  teachers?  .  .  .  They  are  increasing  salaries 
in  other  departments,  and  isn't  it  time  for  the  State  of  New  York, 
which  has  so  much  at  stake,  to  say  that  this  money — this  increase 
in  the  city  budget,  if  increase  there  shall  be — that  some  of  this  in- 
crease shall  go  to  the  teachers?  The  board  of  estimate  and 
apportionment  has  refused  to  appropriate  the  necessary  money. 
Isn't  it  up  to  this  legislature  to  say  that  in  this  matter  of  education 
at  least,  it  is  going  to  see  that  a  proper  compensation  is  received  by 
these  teachers  in  the  New  York  schools  ?  Look  at  the  responsibility 
that  is  laid  upon  them.  Yesterday  I  was  riding  down  Third  Avenue 
and  saw  a  school  in  flames  at  96th  Street.  I  got  out  of  the  car. 
Mothers  and  fathers  were  running  everywhere  to  find  out  what  had 
become  of  their  children.  There  was  a  teacher  in  that  school 
teaching  one  of  the  lower  grades,  who  by  her  own  action  was 
responsible  for  getting  out  those  2500  children  in  safety  from  the 
danger  that  menaced  them.  The  teacher  was  Miss  Blakeslee,  I 
believe.  I  don't  know  what  salary  she  was  receiving,  but  I  know 
she  was  in  one  of  the  lower  grades.  This  teacher,  with  the 
responsibility  of  those  2500  lives,  was  receiving  from  $600  up  to 
$1300,  according  to  the  time  she  had  been  in  the  service.  Is  this 
a  proper  compensation  for  anybody  with  such  responsibilities  upon 
her? 

That  is  the  reason  I  stand  here  as  an  advocate  of  this  bill,  be- 
cause I  don't  believe  the  City  of  New  York  is  doing  the  right  thing 
by  them.  Do  you  know  anything  about  what  the  problem  is  in  the 
public  schools?    Have  you  ever  seen  these  immigrants  pouring  in 


336         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

as  they  come  over  from  Ellis  Island — these  hundreds  of  thousands 
that  come  in  and  take  up  their  residence  in  New  York  City?  It 
becomes  the  duty  of  the  teachers  of  the  New  York  public  schools 
to  light  in  those  faces  the  soul  that  has  been  blotted  out. 

The  city  authorities  have  refused  to  take  advantage  of  the 
privilege  that  is  given  them  by  the  Davis  law,  and  give  to  these 
women  anything  like  what  seems  to  be  a  proper  compensation. 
And  yet  these  children  are  going  home  and  these  parents  are  being 
educated  by  the  children  who  are  sent  out  by  the  public  schools. 
This  great  party  of  immigrants  who  have  done  so  much  towards 
the  shaping  of  policy  in  New  York  City,  are  receiving  their  impres- 
sions through  their  children,  and  those  children  are  being  taken 
care  of  by  the  public  school  teachers.  Now,  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  is  a  state  matter.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  state  has  a  right 
to  take  a  hand. 

We  don't  care  so  much  about,  as  far  as  we  legislators  are  con- 
cerned, these  controversies  between  men  and  women.  We  simply 
tried  in  this  bill  to  determine  what  is  the  proper  compensation  for 
women.  Where  the  compensation  had  been  fixed  by  the  legisla- 
ture, so  far  as  the  men  were  concerned,  we  determined  that  that 
compensation  once  being  fixed  (and  it  has  never  been  questioned) 
is  a  proper  compensation;  that  this  compensation  once  being  fixed 
was  a  proper  criterion  to  go  by;  and  we  have  tried  to  provide  in 
this  bill  that  these  women  shall  receive  that  compensation. 

Lyman  A.  Best: — When  Governor  Roosevelt  signed  the  Davis 
Bill,  which  this  bill  proposes  to  amend,  he  made  the  statement  that 
there  was  one  thing  about  the  bill  which  was  wrong,  and  that  was 
that  it  discriminated  against  the  women.  He  was  urged,  however 
to  sign  the  bill,  although  there  was  a  discrimination  against  the 
women,  and  the  statement  was  made  that  the  evil  would  be  cor- 
rected. A  gentleman  who  was  in  the  room  said  that  when  the  time 
came  this  evil  could  be  corrected,  and  the  women  who  were  doing 
the  same  work  as  men,  properly  recognized  and  given  the  same 
compensation  as  men,  and  he  would  be  the  first  one  to  come  up 
here  and  urge  that  that  error  be  corrected.  That  gentleman  was 
the  first  one  to  get  up  before  the  Senate  Committee  on  Cities  last 
week,  and  he  was  the  first  one  to  get  up  before  this  committee  this 
afternoon  in  opposition  to  these  ladies. 

I  represent  an  association  of  4500  people.  At  a  meeting  of  the 
representatives  of  said  association  at  which  every  school  was  rep- 
resented, and  at  which  there  were  present  over  50  men,  a  vote 
was  taken  as  to  whether  we  should  sustain  the  women  in  this 
fight  for  equal  pay.  The  vote  was  in  favor  of  the  women.  Two- 
thirds  at  least  of  the  men  teachers  and  principals  of  Brooklyn  are 
heartily  in  favor  of  paying  the  women  the  same  salaries  if  they 
are  doing  the  same  work. 

The  claim  is  made  that  the  city  must  pay  these  larger  salaries 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         337 

to  a  man  because  he  has  a  family  or  a  prospective  family.  Accord- 
ing to  that,  he  should  pay  a  certain  pension  to  the  city  for  the 
privilege  of  teaching  school.  The  city  is  not  employing  teachers 
for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  support  to  their  families.  They  are 
not  called  except  for  the  purpose  of  educating  the  children.  We 
put  in  charge  capable  and  competent  men  and  women,  and  if  the 
women  do  the  same  work,  we  believe  that  the  laws  of  right  and 
justice  demand  that  they  should  receive  the  same  salary.  I  am 
getting  no  increase  of  salary  by  this  proposition.  I  favored  the 
increase  before  the  Interborough  Association  of  Teachers  was 
formed.  If  we  wanted  to  do  so  we  could  give  you  a  hundred 
cases  where  women  have  the  burden  of  the  support  of  families  on 
their  shoulders.  I  know  you  will  find  many  more  women  than  men 
in  the  grades  who  are  supporting  families. 

We  are  asking  you  to  give  the  extra  salary  to  these  women  be- 
cause they  are  doing  the  work,  and  they  are  doing  it  as  well  as  the 
men.  I  am  principal  of  one  of  the  largest  schools  in  the  city,  at  one 
time  with  70  teachers  under  me.  In  that  list,  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  there  has  been  a  much  larger  percentage  of  failures  among  the 
men  than  the  women.  They  are  not  men  that  have  prepared  them- 
selves to  be  teachers  or  that  care  to  be  teachers ;  they  are  using 
it  as  a  stepping  stone  to  something  else.  Their  heart  is  not  in  their 
work.  A  man  teacher  came  to  me  some  years  ago,  and  said  that 
he  had  tried  hard  and  yet  he  knew  he  was  a  failure.  I  said : — 
Will  you  follow  my  advice?  There  is  a  piece  of  paper  and  there 
is  a  pen;  write  out  your  resignation.  He  did  so.  To-day  he  is  an 
engineer,  getting  a  larger  salary  than  he  could  ever  get  as  a 
teacher.  And  there  are  other  men  of  the  same  class.  There  are 
women  teachers,  too,  who  are  failures,  undoubtedly.  The  percent- 
age is  not  equal  to  that  of  men.  They  go  into  the  profession  with 
the  idea  of  making  it  their  life  work.  The  best  men  do  not  go  into 
the  work  unless  they  have  a  missionary  spirit  and  are  not  looking 
for  results  in  salary  only. 

When  a  man  says  here  that  this  is  going  to  cost  ten  or  twelve 
million  of  dollars,  he  is  saying  that  which  he  knows  is  not  true. 
Careful  estimate  shows  that  it  will  be  under  six  millions  of  dollars. 
Under  the  provisions  of  the  Davis  law,  the  cost  was  larger  than 
that.  The  time  has  come  when  the  evil  which  has  been  upon  these 
women  for  the  past  seven  years  should  be  rectified.  If  it  costs 
twenty  million  dollars  for  the  purpose  of  rectifying  an  injustice,  let 
it.  I  sincerely  trust  that  you  will  report  this  bill  absolutely  un- 
amended. 

Mr.  O'Loughlin  (speaker  not  known  to  women  teachers)  : — If 
you  only  knew  my  position  you  would  appreciate  the  opportunity 
that  the  chairman  has  given  me  here — and  I  begged  it  of  him — to 
say  a  few  words. 

In  the  first  place,  my  mother  was  a  school  teacher.    In  the  second 


338        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

place,  my  sister  was  a  school  eacher.  In  the  third  place,  a  sister- 
in-law  of  mine  was  a  school  teacher.  In  the  fourth  place,  another 
sister-in-law  is  a  school  teacher.  And,  to  cap  the  climax,  I  married 
a  school  teacher.  Now,  if  my  folks  should  find  out  that  I  was 
here  in  Albany  to-day,  and  went  back  to  Kings  County  and  did  not 
stand  here  and  raise  my  voice  for  this  bill,  which  is  honest,  and 
true,  and  just,  why  there  would  be  nothing  left  of  the  hair  on  my 
head,  that  is  all. 

I  am  here  merely  to  bring  a  message  to  the  committee.  A  week 
and  a  half  ago,  an  organization  was  formed  and  called  "  The  In- 
dependence League  of  the  12th  Assembly  District  of  Kings."  This 
organization  of  800  men  met  and  adopted  a  resolution  favoring  this 
bill,  and  calling  upon  the  members  of  the  legislature  to  give  the 
teachers  what  really  belonged  to  them.  When  this  subject  came  up 
in  our  organization  of  workingmen,  I  didn't  quite  understand  it  at 
first,  and  I  said,  "  Just  what  is  this  thing?  "  They  said  it  is  a  mere 
matter  of  some  fellow  doing  his  work  on  the  job  and  doing  it  right, 
and  if  he  does  it  right  he  ought  to  get  pay  for  it.  A  man  got  up 
and  gave  some  of  this  kind  of  talk,  and  before  he  got  through  all 
the  men  were  backing  him.  Another  fellow  from  another  union 
said :  "  It  is  simply  this :  Here  is  a  woman  who  does  a  certain 
amount  of  work  and  gets  $600;  here  is  a  man  who  does  the  same 
work,  and  he  gets  $900.  If  this  is  allowed  to  continue,  the  first 
thing  you  know  it  will  be  allowed  to  come  into  the  union."  All 
agreed  in  declaring  it  a  scab  game,  and  said :  "  We  are  not  going 
to  stand  for  it." 

One  man  said  he  was  in  a  cigar  factory;  it  had  about  50  men 
employed;  they  were  all  expert  cigarmakers.  After  a  while  the 
boss  put  in  two  machines.  The  boss  said,  "  These  machines  do 
the  work,  we  will  give  that  job  to  a  woman :  you  men  wouldn't  want 
that,  you  are  all  experts;  that  is  a  woman's  job;  being  a  woman's 
job,  you' don't  want  a  woman's  wages;  we  will  give  the  women 
half."  And  so  the  women  got  half.  After  a  while  they  put  in 
another  machine,  and  out  went  five  more  men,  and  so  on  until  they 
all  had  machines.  This  man  returned,  and  the  boss  said :  "  There 
is  a  machine  idle ;  go  to  work."  He  started  it  ?  "  How  about  the 
wages  ?  "  He  said :  "  Whatever  the  machine  pays."  "  That  is  a 
woman's  pay."  "  Oh,"  they  said,  "  things  are  different  now ;  with 
the  machines  the  pay  is  all  alike — man,  woman  or  child." 

Since  I  was  assigned  to  come  and  bear  this  message,  I  have  been 
trying  to  find  out  who  is  opposing  this  measure.  I  find  it  is  a 
handful  of  men  teachers.  What  do  you  want — you  men  teachers? 
What  is  your  argument?  What  can  a  man  gain  by  trying  to  keep 
a  woman  down?  If  a  woman  does  the  same  kind  of  work  he  does, 
it  is  to  his  benefit  that  she  get  the  same  pay.  In  a  short  time,  as 
I  understand  it,  from  an  economic  standpoint  they  will  employ  more 
men. 

The  point  is  simply  this.    I  was  coming  up  in  the  train.    I  heard 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         339 

a  man  say,  "  I  don't  consider  any  of  those  women  in  there  as  good 
a  teacher  as  I  am."  I  says:  "Why?"  "Well,  I  am  a  man  and 
she  is  a  woman."  I  said :  "  She  is  doing  the  same  kind  of  work." 
He  said :  "  No."  "  Then,"  I  said,  "  the  city  is  not  doing  the  right 
thing,  putting  somebody  on  that  job  when  they  can't  do  the  work 
right ;  they  ought  to  put  one  on  there  who  will  do  the  work  right." 
I  came  up  here,  not  to  make  a  speech;  I  came  because  I  was 
asked  to  bear  this  message.  There  are  900  men  in  the  12th  As- 
sembly District  of  Kings  County  who  favor  this  bill.  If  that 
amounts  to  anything,  I  offer  it  to  you. 

Miss  Ellen  T.  O'Brien,  Treasurer  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers : — The  statement  has  been  made  in  the  press  that 
the  qualifications  required  of  women  are  not  the  same  as  those  re- 
quired of  men.  I  stand  here,  gentlemen,  to  refute  that  statement. 
When  I  took  the  examination  for  the  principal's  license,  a  man  sat 
in  front  of  me,  a  man  on  one  side.  All  went  into  the  examination 
at  the  same  time  and  answered  the  same  questions.  If  the  board  of 
examiners  discriminated  between  men  and  women  in  examining 
those  papers  they  were  not  true  to  their  charge. 

The  statement  has  been  made  that  in  emergencies  women  fail. 
I  deny  that  from  personal  experience.  I  am  principal  of  one  of 
the  lower  East  Side  schools  composed  of  2500  children.  Last  June, 
during  the  course  of  some  special  work  being  carried  on  by  the 
Board  of  Health,  the  parents  came  to  the  school  suddenly  in  great 
excitement  and  created  almost  a  riot.  They  thought  that  their 
children's  throats  were  being  cut.  They  rushed  into  the  school  to 
save  their  children.  My  grade  teachers — all  women — ^braved  that 
crowd,  led  those  children  out,  showed  them  to  the  parents,  and  got 
them  back  again  into  the  school  in  five  minutes. 

A  few  months  ago  an  explosion  of  one  of  the  steam  pipes  oc- 
curred in  my  school.  Through  the  ignorance  of  some  one  of  the 
immigrants  in  the  neighborhood  a  false  alarm  was  sent  in;  and  be- 
fore I  knew  what  had  happened  my  school  was  thrown  into  a  panic 
by  the  fire  department  coming  and  rushing  to  our  aid.  My  women 
teachers  cleared  the  school  in  three  minutes.  Can  anyone  say  that 
a  woman  is  not  equal  to  an  emergency  after  that? 

One  of  the  speakers  (Mr.  Cronson)  has  referred  to  Ladd's 
Physiological  Psychology.  I  studied  in  the  same  University,  in  the 
same  class  with  the  gentleman  who  spoke  about  Mr.  Ladd.  Every- 
body knows  that  nobody  can  tell  what  Ladd  means. 

IN  SENATE  ON  WHITE  BILL,  APRIL  15,  1907. 

Senator  White: — Mr.  President,  I  would  ask  the  indulgence  of 
the  Senate  and  its  attention  for  a  few  moments,  as  this  is  a  very 
important  bill,  and  I  believe  every  one  about  this  circle  will  be  in- 
terested to  hear  the  facts  in  relation  to  it 


340        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

The  Senator  from  the  Seventh  (Senator  McCarren)  early  in  the 
session,  introduced  a  bill  to  correct  what  had  seemed  to  many  of 
us  a  very  unjust  condition  of  affairs  in  the  public  schools  of  the 
City  of  New  York.  The  fact  is  that  in  1900,  after  a  long  struggle 
in  the  legislature,  a  bill  arbitrarily  fixing  salaries  and  arbitrarily 
fixing  the  annual  increase  or  increment  for  teachers'  salaries  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  was  passed.  It  has  since  been  recognized  that 
it  was  an  injustice  for  a  woman  occupying  a  position  of  trust  and 
importance  equal  to  that  held  by  a  man  to  receive  a  salary  different 
and  much  less  than  the  salary  of  that  man. 

That  simple  statement  illustrates  the  general  principle  which  has 
been  recognized,  I  think,  by  nearly  all  who  have  viewed  this  subject 
in  a  fair  and  impartial  light  ...  in  other  words  that  it  was  a 
just  thing  that  the  position  should  command  the  salary,  and  not 
have  salary  determined  on  the  basis  of  sex. 

The  Senator  from  the  Seventh  introduced  a  bill  to  obliterate  this 
apparent  injustice,  and  as  to  the  merits  of  that  bill  I  have  no 
criticism  to  offer.  The  bill  was  earnestly  considered  in  the  Cities 
Committee,  and  while  the  Senator  from  the  Seventh  was  naturally 
tenacious  of  the  principles  of  his  bill,  I  found  nothing  but  en- 
couragement from  him  in  my  effort  and  in  the  effort  of  the  com- 
mittee to  reach  a  just  and  fair  conclusion.  Some  of  us  spent  days 
in  New  York  City  and  elsewhere  trying  to  get  the  best  opinions  we 
could,  and  the  best  advice  we  could,  to  the  end  that  a  bill  might 
be  adopted  by  this  legislature  that  would  meet  the  needs  of  the 
community,  and  do  justice  to  all.  As  the  result  of  that,  a  bill  was 
prepared  which  gives  to  the  local  authorities,  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, the  absolute  power  to  fix  the  salaries  of  the  teachers  in  the 
public  schools,  subject  simply  to  two  or  three  different  provisions 
which  were  regarded  as  essential  in  the  interests  of  and  in  justice 
to  that  vast  body  of  men  and  women  who  have  done  so  much  to 
uplift  and  strengthen  that  great  community. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  there  has  been  no  discrimination  here  as 
between  men  and  women;  there  has  been  no  member  of  that  com- 
mittee who  has  sought  to  do  justice  to  any  one  at  the  expense  of 
any  other,  or  in  recognizing  any  class  to  do  injustice  to  any  other. 
Our  purpose  has  been  solely  to  mature  a  bill  which  would  do 
justice  to  all,  and  be  based  upon  sound  principles  of  legislation. 

This  bill  provides  that  the  Board  of  Education  shall  fix  the 
salaries;  it  provides  that  there  shall  be  an  annual  increment,  an 
annual  increase  in  the  salaries  of  all  the  teachers.  It  provides  that 
the  lowest  salary  for  any  grade  shall  be  $720  per  annum — and  the 
committee  felt  that  that  was  not  too  much — that  the  services  of  any 
man  or  woman  worthy  to  occupy  that  position  were  not  overpaid 
by  a  such  a  salary.     .    .    . 

Now,  after  great  consideration  and  after  many  days,  and  after 
consultation  with  what  we  believe  to  be  the  best  thought  among  the 
women,  and  the  best  thought  among  the  men — and  I  want  to  say 


EQUAL  PAY  TOR   EQUAL   WORK         341 

Mr.  President,  that  we  consulted  men  and  women  whom  we  re- 
garded as  disinterested  and  as  well  equipped  to  judge  as  any  on 
this  proposition — this  is  the  final  form  in  which  the  bill  has  been 
placed  before  the  committee.  Now  so  much  for  the  general  prop- 
osition. I  may  say  that  the  committee,  after  consideration  and 
deliberation,  practically  agreed — I  won't  say  every  Senator's  views 
were  fully  met  in  all  particulars,  but  I  will  assert  that  every  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  finally  agreed — that  probably  all  things  con- 
sidered, this  was  as  fair  and  as  equitable  a  bill  as  we  could  reach. 

Senator  Grady: — I  hope  the  day  will  come  when  the  principle 
embodied  in  the  McCarren-Conklin  bill  will  be  the  law,  not  for 
teachers  alone,  but  for  every  public  servant,  and  that  not  the  ques- 
tion of  sex,  but  the  question  of  position  and  of  merit  shall  rule; 
and  I  am  prepared  to  defend  that  as  a  general  proposition,  and  I 
am  prepared  to  defend  it  all  the  more  earnestly  as  a  special  prop- 
osition applicable  to  the  schools.  "  He  who  seeks  equity  must 
come  into  the  court  with  clean  hands "  and  I  want  to  say  to  the 
Senator  from  the  8th  (Senator  Fuller)  speaking  figuratively,  that 
his  clients  haven't  clean  hands.  Theirs  are  colored  with  the  crime 
of  rank  injustice  as  shown  before  the  Committee  and  written  out 
in  every  line  of  the  Davis  bill.  .  .  .  And  ever  since  the  Davis 
bill  was  passed  that  injustice  embodied  in  the  law  by  that  form  of 
deceit  which  conceals  the  truth  rather  than  the  fault,  has  been 
accentuated  and  made  more  grievous  by  the  system  of  legislation 
adopted  by  our  Board  of  Education,  until  it  became  necessary  for 
these  women  teachers  to  organize  in  self  defense. 

And  they  have  organized,  and  they  have  11,000  members  in  their 
organization,  and  they  have  had  representatives  here  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  session,  with  not  a  single  word  uttered  against  the 
men,  the  salaries  they  were  receiving  or  the  increases  they  were 
obtaining.  And  the  men,  preparing  for  a  second  betrayal  of  the 
women,  came  here  and  stated  that  they  favored  the  design  of  the 
bill,  but  they  added  "  Our  advantage  must  be  preserved ;  before 
you  do  justice  to  the  women  you  must  see  that  the  men  are  pre- 
served in  all  their  rights  and  privileges."     .     . 

I  want  to  say  that  there  are  several  positions  in  which  the  men 
have  stood  where,  they  have  added  nothing  to  their  standing  as  men 
engaged  in  teaching  the  youth  of  our  city. 

They  have  not  been  frank;  they  have  not  been  fair;  they  have 
not  been  honest  in  the  statement  of  their  position;  they  have  de- 
layed this  bill;  they  have  suggested  amendments  which  have  been 
passed  upon;  they  have  insisted  that  they  were  in  favor  of  the 
White  bill  as  it  was  first  reported  by  the  Cities  Committee  and  then 
when  that  White  bill  was  amended  as  a  compromise,  they  began 
again  repeating  the  amendments,  one  of  which  is  now  before  you, 
which  they  had  relinquished  when  the  first  bill  was  reported  from 
the  Cities  Committee. 


342         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

Now  I  am  in  a  position  of  thorough  accord  with  that  taken  by 
the  Senator  from  the  Seventh  (Senator  McCarren).  The  men 
ought  to  be  glad  that  this  bill  does  not  go  further.  We  are  not 
equalizing  salaries  now — I  wish  we  were — but  we  are  in  a  measure 
repairing  the  wrong  done  by  the  male  teachers  in  the  Davis  law 
and  before  we  need  to  be  generous  with  the  men  teachers  let  us  do 
partial  justice  to  the  11,000  women  teachers  employed  in  the  public 
schools. 

That  is  an  old  worn-out,  threadbare  "  chestnut " — if  I  may  indulge 
in  a  colloquial — that  of  the  men  being  in  their  position  for  life, 
not  because  they  love  to  be  teachers,  entering  into  a  contract  the 
end  of  which  is  their  highest  aim,  but  that  the  women  are  tran- 
sitory figures  in  the  drama  and  seek  some  other  profession  as  soon 
as  opportunity  presents.  Statistics  will  show  that  in  proportion  to 
the  number  employed  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  more 
of  the  women  adopt  the  profession  as  a  lifelong  profession  than 
do  the  men. 

And  so  it  is  with  the  other  suggestion — you  drive  the  men  out 
of  the  schools.  This  is  stated  before  us  by  men  who  if  driven  out 
of  the  schools  would  have  to  look  to  high  Heaven  and  Eternity 
for  some  other  place  to  go.  We  do  not  propose  to  drive  the  men 
out  of  the  public  schools.  They  are  protected  not  only  by  the  law, 
but  by  the  scheming  legislation  of  the  Board  of  Education.     .     .     . 

Just  as  to  beat  the  Ferry  bill  I  made  the  fare  too  small,  just  so 
to  beat  this  bill  the  men  who  are  in  favor  of  equalization  or  who 
say  they  are,  want  to  make  the  cost  of  it  too  high;  they  want  to 
beat  it  by  indirection;  to  beat  it  not  by  answering  the  arguments 
urged  in  its  favor,  not  by  controverting  a  single  statement  made 
in  support  of  the  legislation  proposed,  but  to  beat  it  by  just  such 
another  betrayal  as  they  accomplished  in  the  original  act. 

Now  those  who  believe  in  a  more  radical  bill  have  yielded  as 
far  as  men  could  yield;  and  those  who  believe  in  a  conservative 
measure  have  gone  as  far  as  they  can  go,  and  linked  together  they 
propose  that  this  bill  shall  pass  this  legislature. 

Let  me  conclude  with  an  illustration  of  the  rank  injustice  that 
the  present  law  now  imposes.  This  letter  is  from  one  of  the  male 
principals.  Here  is  what  he  says :  "  I  have  32  teachers  under 
my  direction.  Of  these  22  are  women.  Out  of  the  22  women 
I  could  readily  pick  a  dozen  for  whom  I  would  not  take  in  exchange 
a  dozen  high-priced  men  teachers.  The  assistant  to  the  principal 
in  my  department  is  a  woman.  If  I  desire  to  be  absent  from 
school  for  any  cause  for  any  length  of  time  she  would  take  charge 
of  the  school  by  official  designation  of  the  Board  of  Superinten- 
dents, and  for  the  time  being  would  to  all  intents  and  purposes  be 
Principal."  "  Yet  three  of  the  men  teachers  under  her  would 
draw  salaries  respectively  of  $2400,  $2250  and  $1845,  while  her 
salary  would  continue  at  its  present  figure  $1600. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         343 

Now  the  bill  you  are  voting  on  provides  that  such  great,  inex- 
cusable, indefensible  discrimination  shall  be  leveled  down. 

I  have  some  interests  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City, 
and  some  views  on  education  similar  to  what  Artemas  Ward  said 
exemplified  his  participation  in  the  civil  war,  when  he  said  he  had 
lost  two  uncles  and  a  cousin.  I  had  two  brothers  and  a  sister  in 
the  teaching  force  of  the  public  schools  under  the  condition  that 
prevailed  before  the  passage  of  the  Davis  law,  at  the  time  when  all 
the  public  school  teachers  were  underpaid.  I  get  my  information 
at  first  hand.  I  am  not  giving  you  what  any  teacher  said  to  me; 
I  am  giving  you  the  views  of  those  who  have  lived  and  worked  up 
to  the  time  that  their  work  was  too  irksome.  I  learned  what  they 
have  to  say  upon  this  bill,  and  I  have  behind  that  the  sentiment  of 
the  great  City  of  New  York. 

Votes  on  passage  of  bill.  Ayes,  45 ;  Noes,  i. 

SPEECHES  IN  SENATE,  MARCH  24,  1908.  Preceding  passage 
of  White  Bill. 

Senator  White  : — The  bill  before  us  does  simply  this :  its  striking 
feature  is  contained  in  the  few  words  which  require  that  the  School 
Board  of  New  York  City  shall  make  no  discrimination  in  salary 
on  account  of  sex.  That  is  the  essential  and  striking  feature  of 
the  bill.  There  are  certain  other  changes  in  the  present  law.  I 
am  not  aware  that  they  are  particularly  significant,  and  I  doubt  if 
anyone  would  oppose  the  bill  on  any  other  gfround  than  that  I  have 
stated. 

The  measure  has  been  criticised  because  it  is  said  that  this  is 
establishing  a  new  policy  for  the  State.  It  is  difficult  for  me  to 
see  how  any  man  can  contend  that  this  is  a  correct  statement  in 
regard  to  the  bill.  If  the  State  has  any  policy  on  that  subject  at 
all,  it  is  well  settled;  but  it  is  settled  the  other  way.  There  is  no 
discrimination  permitted  in  regard  to  sex,  so  far  as  I  know,  except 
in  this  particular  instance.  Under  the  Civil  Service  law  of  the 
State,  there  is  no  discrimination  permitted  as  to  sex,  and  successful 
competitors  reach  their  places  on  the  eligible  list,  each  in  his  place, 
entitled  to  receive  the  same  salary  for  the  same  work  irrespective  of 
sex.  Therefore,  if  there  is  any  policy  of  the  State  on  this  subject, 
beyond  doubt  it  is  all  the  other  way. 

It  has  been  said  that  this  bill  violated  the  principle  of  home  rule. 
Well,  the  truth  about  that  is  this:  The  present  law  violates  the 
principle  of  home  rule.  The  present  law  is  a  mandatory  provision, 
the  so-called  Davis  law,  whereby  the  Legislature  sought  to  deter- 
mine absolutely  within  certain  very  narrow  limits,  the  salaries  of 
the  teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  to  prescribe  in  various 
ways,  by  mandatory  provision,  how  that  Board  of  Education  should 
govern  that  department  in  this  particular.  This  bill  wipes  out 
very  largely  the  mandatory  provisions  and  gives  almost  unlimited 


344         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

discretion  to  the  Board  of  Education  in  determining  these  problems. 
It  is  true  that  cognizance  is  taken  of  the  great  evils  that  had  existed, 
of  the  admitted  unfairness  and  of  admitted  wrongs;  it  is  true  that 
this  bill  prescribes  certain  mandatory  provisions  in  relation  to  those 
things;  but  there  is  no  sense  in  the  argument  that  it  is  a  violation 
of  home  rule, — that  is,  there  can  be  no  consistent  argument  because 
it  is  certainly  a  correct  statement  that  this  bill  seeks  to  alleviate 
the  situation  by  giving  the  Board  greater  discretion,  although  it 
does  seek  to  correct  the  few  evils  of  which  those  afifected  justly 
complain. 

There  is  no  dispute  among  disinterested  men  and  women  as  to 
these  evils;  and  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  Governor's 
message  of  last  year  when  he  vetoed  a  bill  of  similar  character — 
in  that  message  the  Governor  very  distinctly  called  attention  to  the 
evils  and  abuses,  and  particularly  urged  the  correction  of  those 
evils.  But  a  deaf  ear  has  been  turned  to  his  appeal.  The  public 
knows  perfectly  well — whatever  humbug  and  sophistry  may  be  in- 
jected into  this  discussion — the  public  knows  perfectly  well  that 
the  present  conduct  of  the  schools  of  the  city  of  New  York  has 
been  subject  to  the  most  grave  and  just  criticism;  and  this  criticism 
has  called  forth  a  very  earnest  movement  to  reform  and  reorganize 
the  Board  of  Education  of  that  city. 

It  is  known  of  all  men,  I  think  generally  admitted  and  conceded, 
that  there  have  been  abuses  which  have  required  legislative  con- 
sideration. Anyone  familiar  with  such  attitude  as  I  have  been  able 
to  take  on  city  questions  knows  that  I  have  struggled  against 
mandatory  legislation,  struggled  against  the  attempt  of  the  legis- 
lature to  regulate  local  aflfairs;  but  there  are  times  and  conditions 
when  this  Legislature  has  been  called  upon  to  do  that  very  thing. 
I  repeat  this  bill  gives  greater  discretion  and  greater  opportunity 
for  the  exercise  of  judgment  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
than  does  the  present  law  it  seeks  to  amend. 

Although  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  does  prescribe  certain  definite 
principles  under  which  the  board  must  act. 

Now  then,  it  has  been  urged  in  criticism  also  that  in  addition 
to  being  a  violation  of  home  rule,  it  is  mandatory  in  character.  I 
may  say  in  conclusion  that  what  this  bill  does  is  to  prescribe  that 
there  shall  be  no  discrimination  in  regard  to  sex — that  equal  work 
shall  receive  equal  pay;  and  in  order  to  accomplish  that,  existing 
schedules  are  wiped  out  and  three  or  four  general  principles  are 
laid  down  under  which  the  Board  of  Education  must  act.  To 
summarize,  this  bill  fixes  a  minimum  salary  of  $720  a  year;  it  pro- 
vides for  a  minimum  annual  increment ;  it  prescribes  that  no  salary 
shall  be  reduced  as  a  result  of  the  operation  of  this  bill ;  and  finally, 
it  prescribes  that  a  tax  of  four  mills  shall  be  given  to  the  Board 
of  Education  for  salary  purposes. 

I  shall  be  glad  to  try  to  discuss  any  particular  objections  that 
may  be  raised  to  the  bill. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        345 

Senator  McCarren: — I  understand  that  practically  this  is  the 
same  bill  the  Senate  passed  last  year.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  necessary 
to  explain  to  the  Senators  outside  of  the  City  of  New  York  what 
provisions  the  bill  contains.  In  brief,  they  simply  provide  that  the 
female  teachers  shall  receive,  where  they  perform  the  same  work, 
the  same  salaries  that  the  male  teachers  receive.  That  is  a  simple 
proposition  and,  divested  of  all  the  verbiage  employed  in  the 
discussion  of  this  bill,  you  will  in  the  last  analysis  have  to  decide 
for  yourselves  as  to  whether  the  female  teachers  who  do  the  same 
work  as  the  male  teachers  do,  are  entitled  to  the  same  pay. 

It  seems  to  me  there  can  be  no  sensible  refutation  of  that  position. 

The  Senator  from  the  Sixth  (Senator  Travis)  expressed  the 
situation  in  a  nutshell  when  he  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
there  are  male  teachers  in  primary  work,  and  that  in  order  to  bring 
the  salaries  of  all  the  female  teachers  employed  in  teaching  primary 
grades  to  the  same  point,  it  will  be  necessary  to  add  to  the  salary 
list  of  the  Board  of  Education,  about  $4,000,000.  If  that  be  so,  it 
should  be  done. 

Why  should  a  male  teacher  doing  less  effective  work  in  primary 
grades  receive  more  than  a  female  teacher? 

Every  man  and  woman  who  knows  anything  about  human  nature, 
knows  there  should  be  no  male  teachers  doing  primary  work  at 
all.  We  know  that  they  cannot  do  teaching  in  the  primary  grades 
as  well  as  a  woman ;  and  why  should  not  a  woman  be  paid  as  much 
as  the  men  for  doing  better  work  than  the  men  ? 

I  am  somewhat  amazed  by  the  question  suggested  by  the  Senator 
from  the  Sixth  with  reference  to  the  economic  proposition  involved 
in  this  bill.  He  is  much  disturbed  about  the  financial  condition  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  and  he  very  properly  calls  attention  to  the 
many  needs  of  the  city.  We  are  constantly  developing  and  our 
needs  are  growing,  and  we  need  more  schools,  sewers,  and  fire 
houses  and  greater  police  and  fire  protection.  We  need  an  increase 
of  everything  incidental  to  the  development  of  the  city.  These 
needs  cannot  be  prevented  from  multiplying  as  we  go  along,  and 
of  course  the  expenses  must  be  multiplied  to  meet  these  condi- 
tions. 

W«  need  more  transportation  facilities?  That  is  admitted.  But 
that  is  no  reason  why  the  city  should  become  a  paternal  govern- 
ment, and  distribute  its  fund  about  to  the  unemployed.     .     .     . 

There  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  these  worthy  school 
teachers,  these  women,  should  not  receive  the  same  pay  as  men. 
I  graduated  at  a  public  school,  and  no  man  teacher  could  get  me 
to  do  anything.  It  was  the  female  teachers  who  gave  me  what 
education  I  received.  A  woman  can  get  more  out  of  boys  than  a 
man.  I  was  ready  to  fight  the  man  teacher,  but  I  was  always 
ready  to  do  what  the  woman  teacher  wanted  me  to  do;  and  what- 
ever education  the  majority  of  young  men  of  the  City  of  New 
York  received  in  the  public  schools,  is  entirely  due  to  the  honest. 


346         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

painstaking    eflforts  of  the  women.     It  is  their  natural  vocation— 
the  training  of  the  juvenile  mind. 

I  want  to  say,  Mr.  President,  that  the  finances  of  the  City  of 
New  York  will  regulate  themselves.  It  may  be  necessary  to  in- 
crease the  valuation  of  the  property  in  order  to  get  the  necessary 
money,  but  that  will  be  attended  to  by  the  officials  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  But  the  proposition  that  we  shall  consider  is  one 
that  should  be  considered  solely  on  its  own  merits,  and  not  in 
connection  with  any  paternalism  now  in  the  mind  of  the  Senator 
from  the  Sixth.  I  hope  the  Senators  outside  of  the  City  of  New 
York  will  bear  in  mind  that  this  is  a  mandatory  bill  in  all  its  pro- 
visions. It  was  passed  after  consultation  with  a  number  of  men 
interested  in  educational  matters  in  the  City  of  New  York.  You 
are  dealing  with  a  mandatory  law  in  the  Davis  law,  and  hence  the 
necessity  for  the  mandatory  character  of  this  bill.  That  is  all 
there  is  to  the  proposition  and  I  assume  that  the  justice  of  that 
question  will  address  itself  to  the  intelligence  of  every  Senator 
here  who  has  given  the  subject  any  thought.  I  think  the  bill 
should  pass  unanimously. 

Senator  Grady: — The  first  question  to  be  determined  by  the 
Senate  is  as  to  whether  or  not  for  the  redress  of  this  admitted 
wrong,  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City  have  consulted  the 
proper  tribunal.  That  is,  as  to  whether  they  should  present  their 
petition  here  to  the  legislature,  or  to  the  local  authorities  of  the 
City  of  New  York. 

Upon  that  point,  the  Governor  of  this  State  in  his  message  vetoing 
the  bill  last  year  used  very  clear  and  precise  language.  He  said 
that  the  Board  of  Education  is  thus  directly  subject  to  the  control 
of  the  Legislature ;  and  whatever  provision  may  be  found  necessary 
or  wise  for  the  purpose  of  defining  its  powers  or  prescribing  its 
policy,  must  be  prescribed  by  the  Legislature.  No  other  authority 
is  competent  to  make  such  a  provision. 

The  Governor  went  on  to  say  that  the  suggestion  of  the  Mayor 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  that  the  provisions  of  this  law,  the 
original  law,  known  as  the  Davis  Law,  and  the  amendments  known 
as  the  White  Bill,  in  any  way  violated  home  rule,  was  not  to  be 
entertained  for  a  single  moment.  He  said  that  the  indication  of 
its  use  was  a  matter  of  State  concern,  and  that  the  teachers  had 
applied  to  the  proper  authorities  for  the  redress  of  their  griev- 
ances. 

The  Senator  of  the  Sixth  (Senator  Travis)  is  in  favor  of  equal 
pay  for  equal  work,  but  requires  an  enormous  amount  of  other 
things  to  be  done,  or  requires  that  this  injustice — admitted  upon 
all  sides, — ^must  continue.     . 

The  opposition  to  this  bill  comes  from  the  male  teachers.  The 
male  teachers — bless  their  dear  good  hearts — they  are  wonderfully 
exercised  for  fear  you  will  withdraw  the  masculine  influence  from 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         347 

the  schools,  forgetting  in  their  excess  of  interest  in  this  bill,  that 
in  many  of  our  schools  we  had  absolutely  withdrawn  the  masculine 
element 

We  have  schools  going  up  to  the  8th  grade  in  which  there  is 
not  a  man  teacher.  Just  think  of  the  injustice  we  are  doing  to 
these  children  now  when  we  are  running  big  schools  in  New  York 
without  a  male  teacher.  And  they  are  fearful  lest  if  you  attempt 
to  do  justice  to  the  woman  teacher,  you  won't  be  able  to  deal 
generously  with  them. 

Now  that  is  the  position  of  the  male  teacher  in  New  York  City. 
Remember,  he  came  here  when  the  Davis  Bill  was  passed,  and  he 
saw  that  his  minimum  wage  was  fixed,  generously  fixed.  Remember 
that  the  woman  teacher  depending  on  that  bill,  giving  to  her  the 
same  generous  wage  and  a  proper  annual  increment,  found  herself 
deceived,  and  now  they  come  and  tell  you  that  to  do  what  is 
acknowledged  to  be  simple  justice  to  the  women,  means  that  you 
cannot  afford  to  be  generous  to  them,  and  that  this  bill,  therefore, 
should  not  become  a  law. 

What  was  the  Governor's  objection  to  the  bill?  The  Governor's 
objection  was  that  if  adopted  for  the  City  of  New  York,  it  should 
be  adopted  throughout  the  State. 

In  taking  that  position  the  Governor  overlooked  the  fact  that 
New  York  City  had  been  singled  out  of  the  cities  of  the  State 
for  special  treatment  under  the  provisions  of  the  Davis  law,  to 
which  the  White  bill  is  an  amendment.  But  we  accepted  the  Gov- 
ernor's veto,  and  we  sought  relief  from  the  Board  of  Education, 
which  he  said  he  was  sure  could  be  relied  upon  to  redress  the 
grievances  of  the  woman  school  teacher,  and  they  did  undertake 
to  redress  them  to  a  degree;  and  then  our  Board  of  Education 
found  itself  as  powerless  as  the  school  teachers  had  found  them- 
selves. They  asked  for  an  increase  from  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment,  which  would  have  permitted  some  measure  of 
justice.  The  suggestion  that  that  increase  was  defeated  by  the 
action  of  the  women  school  teachers  or  of  any  woman  teacher  or 
any  representative  of  the  women  teachers,  is  entirely  gratuitous; 
and  is  not  borne  out  by  the  facts. 

They  went  to  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  and 
asked  for  an  additional  allowance.  The  women  teachers  went 
before  the  board  and  asked  for  a  larger  amount  that  would  enable 
the  Board  of  Education  to  equalize  their  salaries.  But  to  say 
that  they  opposed  the  lesser  amount  is  entirely  gratuitous,  and  has 
no  foundation  in  fact  whatever;  and  the  Board  of  Estimate  and 
Apportionment  refused  them  a  dollar,  refused  them  a  dollar,  so 
they  are  powerless,  this  Board  of  Education,  just  as  the  women 
teachers  are  powerless  or  any  other  tribunal  of  the  city  govern- 
ment under  the  provisions  of  the  Davis  bill. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  for  me  to  voice  the  justice  that  is 
behind  this  bill.    I  never  went  to  the  public  schools.    I  never  for 


348         EQUAi:  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

an  hour  had  the  benefit  of  the  teaching  of  any  woman.  But  I  know 
that  the  glory  of  the  educational  system  in  this  State,  as  reflected 
in  its  public  schools,  belongs  to  that  sex,  and  it  never  can  be  taken 
from  the  women  teachers  who  have  taken  charge  of  the  children 
of  the  people  and  have  inclined  the  twig  as  it  should  go.  Never 
was  the  work  of  women  teachers  such  a  contribution  to  the  safety 
and  to  the  welfare  of  the  State  as  it  is  at  this  precise  moment. 

Think  of  the  character  of  the  population  which  is  daily  coming 
to  New  York  at  this  time.  I  am  speaking  now  of  that  population 
that  intends  an  absolute  and  ready  acquiescence  in  every  provision 
of  your  law.  Entirely  unacquainted  with  our  language,  coming  to 
these  shores  with  the  wrongs  and  oppressions  of  the  governments 
under  which  they  have  lived,  fresh  in  their  memory  and  active  in 
their  recollections — these  foreigners  and  their  children  are  crowding 
the  schools  and  are  being  taught  by  these  women  teachers. 

First,  they  are  taught  the  language  of  the  country,  and  then  they 
are  made  acquainted  with  the  difference  in  conditions  which  changes 
their  very  nature  from  opponents  of  existing  government  to  honest, 
faithful  and  law-abiding  citizens. 

I  tell  you  if  it  were  not  for  the  work  of  the  women  teachers  in 
the  City  of  New  York  within  the  last  ten  years  we  would  have 
growing  up  now,  fast  approaching  manhood  and  womanhood,  an 
element  of  your  society  that  no  influence  known  to  government 
could  restrain. 

You  would  have  brought  up  an  element  that  believed  the  govern- 
ment must  harass  them;  you  would  have  brought  up  an  element 
that  would  regard  officials  as  the  privileged  and  idle  class;  you 
would  have  brought  up  an  element  that  would  have  regarded  every 
condition  consistent  with  the  republican  form  of  government  as 
simply  a  continuation  of  the  intolerable  conditions  from  which  they 
fled.  Instead  of  that,  you  will  find  you  have  that  element  engaged 
to-day  in  every  work  that  is  intended  to  count  for  the  betterment 
of  their  fellow  man. 

Who  is  directing  the  great  settlement  work  on  the  east  side  of 
New  York  City  ?  Who  are  the  active  men  that  are  bringing  to  those 
of  their  own  race  knowledge  of  the  difference  between  a  republican 
and  a  monarchial  form  of  government?  Who  are  the  active  men 
in  social  life  of  New  York  City?  Mainly,  the  men  who  but  a  few 
years  ago  from  our  women  teachers  of  New  York  City  were 
learning  the  primary  principles  of  the  English  language,  and  were 
being  made  acquainted  with  our  laws  and  customs. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  element  opposed  to  the  passage  of  this  bill 
except  the  male  teachers;  and  they  oppose  it  because  they  do  not 
want  their  contract  with  the  city  disturbed;  and  they  claim  that 
they  have  continued  in  employment  under  the  guarantee  of  an 
advance  in  the  Davis  bill;  but  they  have  nothing  to  say  about  the 
contracts  between  them  and  the  city  when  the  Davis  bill  was 
passed.     They  are  willing  that  that  little  agreement  should  not  be 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         349 

regarded  with  the  same  dignity  as  applies  to  a  contract.  They 
have  a  better  thing  now. 

I  want  to  say  to  you  that  all  that  we  do  as  far  as  expense  is 
concerned  is  to  restore  the  provisions  of  the  original  Davis  law. 
Do  not  be  deceived  about  that.  You  would  think  we  were  robbing 
the  public  treasury  of  its  last  dollar.  We  are  only  restoring  the 
provision  that  four  mills  of  our  own  taxes  shall  be  dedicated  to 
the  salaries  of  teachers.  That  was  the  original  provision,  and  when 
we  increased  our  assessments  and  found  that  four  mills  provided 
means  enough  to  pay  the  good  salaries  to  the  men  teachers  and 
the  miserable  salaries  to  the  women,  instead  of  directing  our  efforts 
towards  equalizing  the  salaries  with  the  remainder  of  the  four 
mills,  our  gentlemen  friends  were  good  enough  to  come  to  the 
Legislature  and  say  that  they  thought  they  could  get  along  with 
three  mills,  now,  and  let  the  women  teachers  continue  under  the 
inequalities  and  the  injustice  of  their  present  existence. 

So  if  you  restore  the  four  mills  of  the  original  Davis  bill,  in 
other  words  make  the  appropriation  for  teachers'  salaries  which  was 
made  in  the  original  bill,  then  we  will  take  care  of  the  rest.  We 
will  see  that  the  identical  wage  is  paid  for  the  identical  work.  We 
will  see  that  the  unanimous  wish  of  our  Board  of  Aldermen  is 
carried  out,  and  we  will  restore  something  of  the  equality  that 
existed  in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  up  to  the  time  that  the  Davis 
law  was  passed ;  and  we  will  do  an  act  of  justice  to  as  hard 
working  and  as  efficient  a  corps  of  public  servants  as  is  to  be  found 
within  the  confines  of  this  State.' 

Bill  passed  35  to  8. 


HON.  E.  A.  MERRITT,  JR.,  MAJORITY  LEADER, 
ASSEMBLY 

In  Assembly,  April  29,  1909. 

GLEDHILL-FOLEY  BILL 

I  think  that  it  is  fair  that  this  bill  should  be  tested  on  its  merits. 
If  it  is  the  pleasure  of  the  house  to  pass  the  bill,  let  us  pass  it  with- 
out amendments — without  by  indirection  killing  it 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  this  question  of  home  rule  should  be 
brought  up  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House.  The 
Republican  party  in  the  Legislature  has  been  obliged  for  many 
years  to  study  the  questions  involved  in  the  government  of  the 
cities  of  the  State,  including  the  great  city  of  New  York,  and  fol- 
lowing the  suggestion  of  the  gentleman  who  last  occupied  the  floor, 
do  for  those  municipalities  and  that  municipality  the  things  which 
the  people  there  desire.  If  the  people  of  any  of  the  cities  of  the 
State  want  any  real  reform  they  naturally  come  to  the  Legislature, 
which   under    Republican   administration  has   always    listened    to 


350         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  demands  of  localities  and  given  them  the  things  which  they 
desired  and  needed. 

There  is  a  lot  of  nonsense  talked  about  this  home  rule  proposition. 
No  city  wants  home  rule.  No  city  in  this  State  wants  to  bear  its 
burdens  unreservedly  by  itself.  And  beyond  and  above  that,  our 
civic  organizations  prescribe  that  power  and  authority  shall  come 
from  the  people  of  the  whole  State. 

Now  here  is  a  question.  Why  should  we  have  interfered  years 
ago  in  this  matter  of  the  salaries  of  teachers  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  passing  a  bill  which  regulates  it?  It  was  done,  as  this  is 
to  be  done,  at  the  demand  of  the  taxpayers  upon  the  Republican 
majority  of  the  State  Legislature.  Having  once  assumed  this  re- 
sponsibility, this  bill  or  any  bill  of  this  sort  naturally  comes  before 
the  Legislature.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  force  in  what  my  friend, 
Mr.  Oliver,  said.  Primarily  the  people  most  affected  are  those 
who  teach  the  youngest  children,  and  it  is  an  old  saying  that  "  the 
hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world." 

I  think  the  bill  ought  to  be  passed,  in  its  form  here,  properly 
authenticated  as  it  is  by  title  and  in  other  ways.  I  do  not  care  if 
it  adds  four  million  dollars  to  the  expense  of  running  the  City  of 
New  York.  They  want  it  there.  I  know  there  is  a  feeling  that 
it  ought  to  be,  down  there.  I  know  that  when  the  administration, 
of  the  City  of  New  York  wants  to,  it  can  easily  save,  without  in- 
creasing the  tax  budget,  the  amount  necessary  to  make  this  increase. 
I  know  that  they  do  not  want  to  do  it — at  least  I  am  afraid  so,  and 
it  is  a  thing  I  do  not  quite  understand.  But  they  seem — they  don't 
seem  to  be  quite  eager  to  economize  as  they  ought  to  be.  But 
here  is  something  that  the  people  want,  and  I  undertake  to  say  to 
you,  gentlemen,  that  if  the  administration  of  New  York  City  wants 
to  do  it,  they  can  do  it  and  not  spend  one  dollar  more  than  they 
do  now;  and  after  they  have  paid  this  charge,  if  it  is  six  million 
dollars,  they  could  have  another  six  million  and  still  do  this  if 
they  want  to,     .     .     . 

MAYOR'S  HEARING,  May  ii,  1909. 

Senator  McCarren: — The  opponents  of  the  bill  hold  that  since 
this  bill  is  of  a  mandatory  character,  it  therefore  should  not  be 
accepted  by  the  Mayor. 

Now  let  me  call  the  attention  of  Your  Honor  to  the  genesis  of 
the  so-called  Davis  Law  under  which  the  system  is  now  operating. 
After  the  consolidation  of  the  old  City  of  New  York  and  the  old 
City  of  Brooklyn,  and  the  other  territory,  a  great  deal  of  agitation 
was  set  on  foot  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  fixing  the 
salaries  that  should  be  paid  to  the  public  school  teachers.  There 
was  considerable  difference  of  opinion,  and  those  who  contended  as 
to  the  right  of  local  authority  to  regulate  the  salaries  of  the 
teachers  did  so  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  question  that  affected 


EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         351 

this  locality  and  following  out  the  principle  of  home  rule,  the 
local  authority  should  be  permitted  to  fix  the  salary  for  the  place. 
I  have  no  quarrel  with  that  proposition. 

After  considerable  effort  and  many  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
local  authorities  to  fix  satisfactorily  the  salaries  of  school  teachers, 
they  discovered  they  could  not  do  it  because  of  the  conflicting 
views  and  of  the  different  interests,  and  their  inability  to  come 
to  a  unanimous  agreement.  So  that  the  question  was  brought  to 
the  legislature.  After  a  great  deal  of  conference  over  it,  and  more 
or  less  agitation,  the  so-called  Davis  bill  was  evolved  which  arbi- 
trarily fixed  the  schedules  under  which  the  school  teachers  are  now 
being  paid.  So  I  would  like  to  have  Your  Honor  keep  in  mind 
this  fact  that  we  are  operating  under  an  arbitrary  law.  Yet,  there 
is  no  proposition  to  repeal  the  Davis  Law.     . 

Now,  therefore,  we  must  take  into  account  and  keep  in  mind 
that  this  is  an  amendment  of  the  Davis  Law  and  the  Davis  Law 
is  an  arbitrary  measure,  and  inasmuch  as  we  are  dealing  with  an 
arbitrary  measure,  there  is  no  other  way  we  can  deal  with  it  than 
to  amend  the  arbitrary  measure.  Now  that  is  what  we  are  trying 
to  do;  and  those  who  say  that  we  are  opposing  the  idea  of  Home 
Rule  must  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  we  must  either  repeal  the 
Davis  Law  or  amend  the  Davis  Law  which  is  a  mandatory  measure ; 
and  this  is,  of  course,  a  mandatory  bill  because  it  amends  a  man- 
datory statute — so  much  for  that, 

I  want  to  say  also,  to  Your  Honor,  that  while  it  may  cut  no 
figure  with  you,  I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact,  that  this 
bill  has  practically  twice  passed  the  legislature  by  a  very  large 
majority.  Once  vetoed  by  yourself  and  the  Governor  and  passed 
over  your  veto  and  failing  to  pass  over  the  Governor's  veto  because 
the  attempt  was  not  made. 

Now  with  reference  to  the  equity  in  the  bill.  I  want  to  say 
that  everybody  here  will  thoroughly  agree  with  me  when  I  say 
that  if  we  owe  anything  at  all  to  the  scholastic  system,  we  cer- 
tainly owe  a  great  deal  to  the  efficacy  and  to  the  method  of  the 
female  teachers  in  the  public  schools. 

I  cannot  say  too  much  in  praise  of  the  women  teachers  in  our 
public  schools.  We  know  how  by  nature  they  are  equipped  to  train 
and  rear  and  direct  the  young  minds.  We  know  that  the  women 
teachers  in  our  public  schools  are  in  every  way  equipped,  and  they 
give  more  time  and  they  are,  too,  to  a  great  extent,  more  deeply 
interested  in  their  work.  We  know  that  to-day  we  have  a  class  of 
young  men  who  are  teaching  in  our  public  schools  for  the  purpose 
of  earning  a  sufficient  amount  of  money  to  enable  them  to  enter 
some  profession — the  medical  profession,  or  the  profession  of  the 
law, — consequently  they  are  there  only  temporarily;  the  women 
are  there  permanently,  and  not  a  single  one  of  them  ever  hopes 
to  better  herself  so  far  as  an  opportunity  of  earning  a  livelihood 
is  concerned  and  she  knows  that  she  is  there  for  life  unless  she 


352         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

fortunately  or  unfortunately  gets  married.  Now  that  is  the  only 
way  a  woman  teacher  ever  leaves  the  public  school.  So  to  that 
extent  they  look  upon  it  as  a  life  work.  It  is  a  labor  of  love  with 
them.     . 

Now  another  point,  it  is  contended  that  this  bill  if  enacted  into 
law,  will  cost  the  City  four  or  five  or  six  millions  of  dollars  more 
than  is  now  paid  for  educational  purposes. 

In  answer  to  that  I  want  to  say  that  those  who  take  that  position 
calculate  that  the  City  will  be  saving  money  by  the  non-acceptance 
of  this  bill.  That  may  be  true,  but  it  is  also  true,  that  the  City 
can  save  money  by  reducing  these  salaries.  If  you  take  50  per 
cent,  off  the  salaries  at  the  present  time,  that  is  a  method  of  saving 
money.  There  are  a  great  many  different  ways  in  which  you  can 
save  money  for  the  City,  but  that  is  not  the  question.  The  question 
is:  Shall  the  City  adequately  pay  its  teachers? 

I  cannot  understand  how  anybody  can  attempt  to  talk  over  the 
proposition  that  where  equal  work  is  done  why  equal  pay  should 
not  be  forthcoming.  This  bill  provides  elementally  that  there  shall 
be  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  should  not 
be  necessary  for  one  moment  to  contend  for  the  acceptance  of 
that  proposition. 

Now  I  simply  want  to  emphasize  to  those  who  contend  that  this 
is  a  violation  of  a  sort  of  home  rule — that  stereotyped  expression — 
that  you  must  remember  that  you  are  amending  a  mandatory  act. 

There  is  no  other  way  that  you  can  get  at  the  solution  of  this 
proposition  except  by  amending  this  mandatory  act,  for  the  system 
that  we  are  to-day  operating  under  is  a  mandatory  one.  The  same 
thing  could  be  said  of  the  Fire  Department  and  the  Police  Depart- 
ment. The  salaries  of  every  member  of  the  uniformed  force  in  both 
of  these  departments  is  arbitrarily  fixed.  It  is  provided  by  law, 
that  when  a  fireman  is  appointed,  he  shall  receive  so  much  and 
that  as  he  goes  on  in  his  graduation,  he  shall  reach  the  maximum. 
The  same  is  true  in  this  bill,  where  the  school  teachers  are  asking 
for  nothing  more  than  is  really  due  to  them  in  their  public  service 
as  public  servants. ' 

Ezra  A.  Tuttle: — Mr.  Mayor:  I  don't  come  here  to  beg  for 
justice.  We  may  beg  for  mercy,  but  justice  is  a  thing  to  demand 
and  to  fight  for. 

This  bill  is  the  embodiment  of  pure  justice  and  nothing  else,  so 
far  as  it  provides  for  equal  pay  for  the  women  teachers  for  doing 
the  same  work  that  the  men  do. 

If  your  Honor  is  about  to  ask  me  if  I  read  the  bill,  I  will  answer 
it  by  saying,  "  No."  It  is  sufficient  for  me  to  have  Senator  Mc- 
Carren  assure  your  Honor  and  this  audience  that  the  bill  does 
provide  for  equal  pay  for  the  teachers  both  male  and  female,  women 
and  men. 

Your  Honor  is  familiar  with  history,  and  you  know  that  from 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         353 

the  time  of  earliest  history,  down, — we  will  start  with  the  English 
people,  with  King  John — the  teacher  element  in  society,  the  down- 
trodden element  in  society,  has  always  had  to  fight  for  its  rights, 
for  equality.  And  here  we  are,  face  to  face,  on  the  same  proposition 
in  this  bill.  It  is  the  same  in  this  20th  century  of  civilization, — 
that  men,  simply  because  they  are  strong  physically,  simply  because 
they  have  relegated  to  themselves  the  right  to  govern,  shall  practice 
an  injustice  upon  women  merely  because  they  are  weaker. 

Mr.  Mayor,  I  was  trained  in  the  normal  schools  of  this  State  as 
a  teacher.  I  have  taught  school.  I  have  practiced  law  in  this  city 
for  twenty-five  years  and  more,  and  I  want  to  say  to  you,  and  I 
am  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  it,  that  I  said  to  Miss  Strachan, 
"  You  may  think  that  moral  suasion  is  all  that  is  necessary  in  this 
fight,  but  I  think  before  you  win  it,  you  will  find  that  moral  force  as 
well  is  necessary." 

Mr.  Mayor,  if  I  had  been  ashamed  to  confess  that  I  said  if  the 
women  teachers  do  not  get  justice  out  of  our  officials  or  your 
Honor,  and  the  Governor  of  this  State,  that  I  would  like  to  see 
the  15,000  teachers  in  this  great  city  strike. 

The  Mayor — You  are  the  Man ! 

Yes,  I  am  the  man,  and  I  am  not  ashamed  of  it, — thank  God  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  it.  I  want  to  say  to  you,  that  strikes  and  boy- 
cotts are  the  means  by  which  the  downtrodden,  the  weaker  element 
in  society  have  always  gained  liberty,  equity  and  justice;  and  it  is 
not  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of.  They  are  despicable  in  the  eyes 
of  those  who  will  not  grant  justice  when  only  peaceful  means  are 
used.  The  labor  men  of  America  have  raised  themselves  to  their 
present  position,  higher  than  that  of  any  other  classes  of  laboring 
people,  probably,  by  asserting  forcefully  their  rights,  and  demanding 
justice. 

The  Mayor:  Do  you  think  that  the  teachers  will  strike  if  I  now 
exercise  my  constitutional  and  legal  powers  in  vetoing  this  bill? 

Mr.  Tuttle :     No,  sir,  I  do  not ;  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  do  not. 

The  Mayor:     You  would  encourage  them? 

Mr.  Tuttle:  Yes,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it — I  don't  think  they  will. 
But  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  if  you  continue  in  the  office  of  mayor 
for  another  term 

The  Mayor:     God  forbid.     (Laughter.) 

Mr.  Tuttle:  Amen,  amen,  or  any  mayor  that  succeeds  you,  shall 
continue  this  process  of  declining  and  refusing  to  do  justice  to 
these  teachers,  the  time  will  come  when  you  will  see  that  the 
teachers  will  assert  their  rights. 

Mr.  Cimxis  (The  Central  Federated  Union)  : — Mr.  (Thairman, 
and  Mr.  Mayor,  Your  Honor:  We  are  here  on  behalf  of  the 
teachers'  bill.  This  is  a  committee  of  five  appointed  by  the  Central 
body,  of  which  I  am  the  chairman. 

The  body  was  unanimous  in  the  endorsing  of  the  school  teachers' 


354        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

bill  and  we  believe  as  organized  men,  that  when  women  do  the 
same  work — the  same  class  of  work — as  men,  they  should  get  the 
same  pay. 

We  also  believe  if  there  is  a  tax  that  has  to  be  made  up  by  the 
taxpayers,  it  is  the  working  men  that,  as  a  general  rule,  feel  it 
We  are  in  favor  of  this  bill,  and  we  are  willing,  if  it  is  necessarj', 
to  pay  a  little  more  taxes,  and  see  that  the  school  teachers  get 
equal  pay. 

Mr.  Holland:  Mr.  Mayor,  I  am  not  representing  the  Board  of 
Education  this  morning;  I  am  representing  the  Central  Federated 
Union.  Our  Federation  has  endorsed  this  bill,  and  it  is  the  belief 
of  our  association  that  for  equal  work  there  should  be  equal  pay. 

In  mechanics,  in  electrical  work,  in  typographical  work,  a  woman 
doing  the  same  identical  work  is  given  the  same  identical  pay;  in 
a  machine  shop  where  women  are  working  alongside  of  men,  they 
receive  the  same  pay  for  the  same  kind  of  work.  ...  I  would 
not  care  if  I  was  not  on  the  Board  of  Education  twenty-five  seconds, 
but  I  am  going  to  try  to  be  honest  while  I  am  there. 

This  city  was  put  on  record  some  time  ago  as  a  model  employer. 
I  believe  that  here  is  the  place  where  we  can  apply  the  principle 
of  being  a  model  employer  and  an  impartial  employer;  and  I  hope 
your  Honor  can  see  your  way  clear  at  this  time  to  sign  this  bill 
and  give  the  women  teachers  the  same  opportunities  as  the  men 
have  at  the  present  time. 

Mrs.  Belle  De  Rivera  : — Your  Honor,  I  represent  the  New  York 
City  Federation  of  Women's  Club,  an  organization  which  com- 
prises a  membership  of  twenty-five  to  thirty-five  thousand  women. 
We  held  our  semi-annual  convention  last  Friday.  I  have  here  an 
official  list  of  the  Credential  Committee  from  which  it  appears  that 
191  votes  were  cast,  and  it  was  a  unanimous  vote,  in  favor  of  the 
Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill. 

Mr.  Freel: — Your  Honor,  I  am  here  as  a  taxpayer  of  the  City 
of  New  York.  I  also  came  here  as  a  man  who  was  born  and 
brought  up  in  the  Lower  East  Side  of  the  City  of  New  York,  over 
fifty  years  ago,  and  who  has  remained  in  his  own  city  constantly 
for  all  that  time;  a  man  who,  whatever  in  an  educational  way  he 
possesses,  owes  it  to  the  common  school  system  of  the  City  of  New 
York;  a  man  who  is  clear-eyed  and  a  typical  representative  of  the 
Lower  East  Side  of  the  city,  a  man  who  has  had  to  fight  his  way 
through  and  up,  a  man  who  has  no  misconceptions.  He  under- 
stands his  New  York,  because  he  keeps  his  ear  to  the  ground,  and 
bumps  elbows  with  conditions. 

I  want  to  say  that  among  the  women  that  I  recollect  that  have 
been  helpful  to  me  in  my  various  fights  in  the  battles  of  life,  I 
place  the  women  teachers  who  helped  me  when  I  was  practically 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         355 

unable  to  help  myself,  on  the  same  plane  and  in  the  same  position 
exactly,  as  I  do  my  mother. 

I  believe  that  every  man  that  has  been  bom  in  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  every  man  who  has  struggled  as  I  have  struggled,  and 
has  come  into  close  relations  with  the  teachers  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  are  with  me  squarely  on  this  proposition,  and  I  believe  that 
they  are  by  far  the  large  majority  of  the  representatives  of  the  tax- 
payers and  residents  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

We  are  in  favor  of  this  measure — the  people;  we  have  no  other 
alma  mater  than  the  public  schools  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
They  know  very  well  the  teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  they 
have  confidence  in  them,  and  they  ask  you  and  they  look  to  you  to 
approve  this  and  forward  it  for  the  signature  of  the  governor,  and 
I  believe  that  if  you  do  that,  you  will  satisfy  the  larger  majority 
of  men  and  women  who  have  been  bom  and  lived  all  their  lives  in 
the  City  of  New  York. 

You  may,  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  will,  dissatisfy  and  disgruntle 
some  people  who  have  come  to  the  City  of  New  York  from  outside 
of  it,  to  improve  conditions  that  they  do  not  and  never  will  under- 
stand; but  you  will  satisfy  the  residents  who  live  in  the  City  of 
New  York  if  you  approve  this  mesure. 

Senator  Gledhill:— I  will  be  very  brief,  Your  Honor.  I  am 
very  proud  to  be  the  sponsor  of  this  bill.  I  have  been  identified 
with  organized  labor  for  over  25  years,  and  I  am  a  firm  believer 

The  Mayor :     Are  you  a  member  of  the  Central  Federation  ? 

No,  sir,  I  am  a  member  of  the  International  Plasterers. 

I  am  a  firm  believer  in  high  wages.  I  believe  that  when  all 
classes  of  people  who  are  banded  together  into  an  organization 
receives  the  highest  consideration  possible,  we  receive  the  best 
products  from  them. 

I  feel  that  the  school  teacher  is  the  ideal.  I  feel  that  all  the  in- 
spiration and  all  the  intelligence  that  the  average  youth  to-day  has, 
has  come  from  these  women,  or  some  other  woman  who  has  taught 
them. 

Now,  someone  has  said  that  these  teachers  receive  plenty.  Well, 
when  you  think  of  the  janitor  downstairs  who  gets  $200  a  month, 
there  is  not  much  inspiration  for  the  teachers  upstairs  who  re- 
ceive $60. 

Organized  labor,  and  organized  movements  such  as  these  women 
are  carrying  on  have  been  the  means  of  uplifting  humanity  and 
making  conditions  better  all  the  world  over.  These  women  are 
only  asking  for  the  addition  of  the  one  mill,  it  does  not  amount  to 
anything  very  great.  They  simply  ask  that  so  much  be  set  aside; 
and  they  are  entitled  to  it. 

These  male  teachers,  who  are  fighting  these  women  and  who 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves — they  ought  to  be  working  for 
them.     Practically,  let  us  say,  they  ought  to  be  out  erecting  build- 


356         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Jng,  or  ought  to  be  working  at  some  physical  labor  for  which  they 
are  better  fitted  than  for  that  which  the  women  are  doing  and 
which  they  are  willing  to  do.  If  they  are  not  willing  that  others 
shall  get  the  same  pay  that  they  themselves  get  for  the  same  work, 
let  them  show  us  why  that  is  not  the  right  spirit. 

I  trust,  Your  Honor,  that  you  will  see  it  in  this  way,  and  that 
you  will  sign  this  bill. 

Assemblyman  Foley: — Your  Honor,  I  desire  to  state  that  I 
have  read  this  measure,  and  that  I  introduced  it  in  the  Assembly. 
I  believe  if  you  had  asked  that  question  last  Thursday  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Education,  you  would  have  been  startled  by 
the  number  that  answered :  "  No." 

The  Mayor:    What  question  do  you  mean? 

Assemblyman  Foley:  Have  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation read  or  seen  the  bill  which  passed  both  Houses? 

Now,  the  most  important  phase  of  the  measure  to  my  mind, 
after  the  explanations  that  have  been  given  of  the  equal  pay  part 
of  it — and  Your  Honor  appreciates  that  the  words  male  and  female 
have  been  eliminated  from  the  Davis  law  and  are  not  contained  in 
the  measure  now  before  you — is  that  it  increases  the  minimum 
salary  of  the  women  teachers  from  $600  to  $720. 

That  the  Board  of  Education  has  realized  the  injustice  in  the  con- 
ditions as  they  now  exist,  appeared  in  their  estimate  submitted  to 
the  finance  department;  the  governor  recognized  it  in  his  veto  of 
the  measure  two  years  ago;  and  I  believe  Your  Honor  has  rec- 
ognized it. 

I  hope  Your  Honor  will  sign  this  bill.  In  so  doing  you  will 
render  a  great  service  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  do  more  good 
than  it  is  possible  for  you  now  to  appreciate. 

A  TYPE  OF  OUR  OPPONENTS 

Mr.  De  Muth  : — I  wish  to  speak  as  a  representative  of  the  tax- 
payers' association;  I  am  a  real  estate  dealer. 

May  it  please  Your  Honor,  as  the  president  of  the  West  Side 
Taxpayers  organization,  and  as  an  executive  member  of  the  United 
Real  Estate  Owners'  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York,  I 
want  to  enter  a  protest  against  Your  Honor's  signature  being  placed 
to  the  teachers'  bill.  ...  To  be  properly  named,  it  should  be 
named  the  most  gigantic  grab  bill  that  ever  was  put  through  a 
legislature,  for  that  should  be  the  name  of  the  bill  instead  of  the 
equal  pay  bill. 

We  have  with  us  a  representative  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and 
one  of  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Education.  Here  are  the 
underlings  of  that  department,  the  superior  officers  having  refused 
to  give  them  what  they  believe  they  were  entitled  to,  because  their 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         357 

superior  officers  didn't  think  they  should  be  entitled  to  the  amount 
paid  to  these  men. 

The  Board  of  Education  of  New  York  has  endeavored  as  far  as 
possible  to  increase  the  salaries  as  much  as  possible. 

We  have  found  here  a  condition  of  affairs  existing  here  in  this 
city  that  never  existed  in  this  town  before.  We  have  an  attempt 
here  to  get  out  of  the  treasury  of  the  City  of  New  York,  over  the 
heads  of  the  department,  by  the  employees  of  the  department, 
money  that  they  believe  they  are  entitled  to.  Now  what  have  they 
done.  We  find  these  various  organizations  of  teachers,  combining 
themselves  into  bodies,  discussing  the  question  of  how  and  devising 
means  and  ways  in  which  they  shall  get  this  amount  of  monej'. 

They  hope  to  equalize  the  salary  by  making  the  women's  salary 
equal  the  men's  salary.  If  you  will  go  carefully  over  the  bill,  you 
will  find  I  am  right  in  my  contesting  it.  I  don't  care  to  argue 
that  particular  point,  Your  Honor,  I  am  arguing  it  from  a  stand- 
point of  the  fact  that  the  ladies  have  taken  a  peculiar  course  to 
arrive  at  a  conclusion,  that  they  have  banded  themselves  together 
as  members  of  an  organization.  ...  It  has  been  said  this 
organization  went  to  Albany  last  year,  I  know  that  they  were  up 
there.  The  way  they  thought  to  pass  legislation  at  Albany  was  the 
most  peculiar  system 

The  Mayor :     That  is  not  before  me  either. 

Mr.  De  Muth :  I  simply  want  to  show  you  how  the  bill  was 
passed  with  such  an  enormous  majority. 

The  Mayor:  That  is  surely  of  academic  interest,  the  bill  is 
before  me. 

Mr.  De  Muth:    We  will  get  down  to  the  teachers? 

The  Mayor:     I   wish  you   would,   because  time   is  running  on. 

Mr.  De  Muth:  I  want  to  get  down  then  to  the  purposes  of  the 
teachers  coming  before  us  as  men  of  the  city  department.  They 
have  seen  that  they  could  not  get  what  they  wanted  in  New  York 
City  from  their  superior  officers 

The  Mayor:     That  is  not  before  me — — 

Mr.  De  Muth :     They  go  up  to  Albany  to  get 

The  Mayor:  One  moment.  Will  you  please  discuss  the  bill 
that  is  before  me.  I  have  already  read  the  title  twice,  this  bill  is 
before  me  and  there  is  no  question  involved  as  to  whether  the 
teachers  ought  to  be  here  or  ought  not  to  be  here.  Miss  Strachan 
is  here  with  the  permission  of  the  Board  of  Education,  I  take  it. 

Mr.  De  Muth :  I  hope  so.  I  wish  to  say  just  this.  Your  Honor, 
we  will  get  down  to  the  point  of  it  without  any  further  argument. 

Our  associations  are  entirely  opposed  to  this  proposition  simply 
because  it  is  going  to  raise  a  fund  of  three  million  a  year,  we  do 
not  know  for  how  long.     .    .     . 

The  Mayor:     Have  you  worked  that  out? 

Mr.  De  Muth:    Wie  have  done  it  on  that  proposition- 


358         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  Mayor:     Will  you  give  it  to  me  as  you  have  it  there? 

Mr.  De  Muth :  We  have  not  had  any  expert  accountant  here  to 
go  over  this  matter  and  figure  it  out  as  the  other  side  have,  but 
we  have  arrived  at  our  figures  as  best  we  might. 

The  Mayor:     You  must  have  those  figures  before  you. 

Mr.  De  Muth:     We  have  approximately  these  figures. 

The  Mayor:     Well,  give  them  to  us. 

Mr.  De  Muth :  I  have  nothing  with  me,  but  this  bill  extends 
over  a  period  of  three  years,  this  increasing — the  figures  are  ready 
to  be  presented  and  will  be  presented  in  the  course  of  argument 
this  morning,  but  I  have  not  the  figures. 

This  bill  from  the  start  to  the  finish  is  really  a  salary  grab  bill. 
I  believe  Your  Honor    .    .    . 

ANOTHER  TYPE  OF  OPPONENT 

A  Male  Teacher: — I  come  to  you  as  a  man  school  teacher,  as 
I  have  spent  some  years  in  the  profession  of  teaching  schools. 
...  I  was  quite  interested  in  what  the  man  said  from  the 
teacher's  side,  telling  about  his  school  days  and  how  he  regarded 
the  teachers  that  taught  him  in  his  school  days  in  the  same  light 
as  his  mother.  I,  for  myself,  place  no  teacher  in  the  same  class 
with  my  mother.  I  remember  two  men  teachers  that  I  went  to — 
I  went  to  a  mixed  school  composed  of  both  boys  and  girls.  I  re- 
member very  distinctly  of  having  one  man  teacher,  who 

The  Mayor:  You  place  them  in  the  same  class  with  your 
father  ?     (  Laughter. ) 

Speaker  (continuing) :  Your  Honor,  sir,  I  place  the  men 
teachers  as  men — they  have  an  influence  which  is  most  important 
over  the  youths.  This  reminds  me  of  a  time — I  am  willing,  per- 
fectly willing  to  answer  a  direct  question,  and  I  think  that  a  man 
teacher  is  an  essential — in  the  lives  of  the  youth  of  to-day 

I  remember  a  distinct  occasion  when  I  had  a  man  teacher  who 
did  the  work  which  a  woman  teacher  could  not  do  for  me — it  was 
not  in  the  City  of  New  York,  I  admit,  very  likely  on  account  of 
the  lines  they  have  to-day. 

On  the  idea  of  discipline,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  there 
should  be  men  teachers,  as  I  think  that  is  one  of  the  great  as- 
sistance to  the  women  teachers  which  should  not  be  considered  too 
lightly. 

Inevitably,  the  young  man  of  to-day  in  schools,  getting  his  early 
school  training,  needs  the  influence  he  gets  bunking  up  against  a 
man  who  is  able  to  answer  questions  in  a  way  a  woman  cannot. 
The  uses  of  the  men  in  the  public  schools  are  therefore  more  than 
simply  to  teach  from  books ;  the  younger  generation  is  training  them 
up  to  feel  that  usefulness.  They  expect  to  be  something  more 
than  what  they  are  when  they  leave  school.  There  are  many 
branches  of  business  open  to  them  that  are  not  open  to  the  female. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         359 

A  girl  that  is  turned  out  from  our  schools  to-day  is  fitted  for  a 
teacher  and  nothing  else,  but  a  man  when  he  has  grown  up,  he  has 
many  professions  open  to  him — he  may  be  mayor  of  the  City  of 
New  York — do  not  understand  me,  Your  Honor,  that  T  mean  any 
discredit,  but  I  am  simply  mentioning  the  many  activities  of  life 
which  are  open  to  a  young  man  and  which  should  have  some  other 
inspiration  other  than  the  women  teachers  in  his  younger  days. 

Another  thing,  a  woman  teacher  may  teach  the  boy  so  he  can 
say  "  Good-morning,"  "  Good-night,"  "  Good-by,"  "  I  hope  you  will 
come  again,"  "  Am  glad  to  meet  you,  glad  to  know  you,"  and 
many  of  those  little  polite  phrases,  but  show  me  the  boy  that  has 
been  taught  by  a  woman  teacher  and  knows  enough  and  has  man- 
ners enough,  and  knows  how  to  act  in  going  into  a  public  office 
and  applying  for  a  position,  knows  how  to  address  himself  to  a 
prospective  employer,  knows  how  to  do  a  thousand  and  one  things 
that  a  man  can  teach  that  a  woman  cannot.  I  mention  that  so  as  to 
illustrate  why  there  should  be  men  teachers  whereby  the  boys  may 
have  some  one  to  go  to  to  get  the  information  which  they  really 
need,  which  cannot  be  supplied  by  the  excellent  work  of  the  lady- 
teachers.  I  say  the  New  York  schools  need  the  men  teachers.  I 
have  taught  besides  two  years  in  New  York,  three  years  in  other 
States,  and  know  something  about  the  conditions  that  exist  here  and 
elsewhere. 

IN  SENATE  ON  MAYOR'S  VETO  OF  WHITE  BILL,  1907 

Senator  Grady: — ^There  is  a  wonderful  deal  of  misinformation 
floating  about  concerning  this  bill,  and  as  suggested  by  the  Senator 
of  the  38th  (Senator  White),  it  proceeds  from  the  men  teachers 
who  up  to  the  present  time  have  had  their  full  and  sufficient 
salaries,  but  who  are  little  in  fear  that  if  this  bill  passes  that  full- 
ness and  sufficiency  will  not  be  increased  to  overflowing. 

Now  let  us  go  back  a  little  while,  before  1900,  when  the  legisla- 
ture commenced,  at  the  request  of  the  men  who  oppose  this  bill — 
understand  that — at  the  request  of  the  men  who  oppose  this  bill- 
when  the  state  first  undertook  to  regulate  the  salaries  of  the 
teachers  in  the  City  of  New  York.  Prior  to  that  time  there  was  in 
Brooklyn  no  distinction  as  to  the  salary  paid  to  male  or  to  women 
teachers.  The  salary  went  with  the  position,  and  there  was  no  dis- 
tinction whatever  made  on  account  of  sex  up  to  that  time. 

Now  that  did  not  suit  an  organization  then  existing  on  the  part 
of  the  men  teachers.  They  came  to  the  legislature  and  they  asked 
the  legislature  first  to  provide  a  definite  fixed  sum  that  must  be 
appropriated  from  the  budget  to  the  uses  of  the  Department  of 
Education;  and  they  fixed  that  sum  at  four  mills.  That  was  the 
provision  of  the  original  law,  that  four  mills  of  our  annual  taxa- 
tion should  be  given  to  the  Board  of  Education.  To  do  what? 
To   meet   the   mandatory   provisions   of  the   law   which  fixed   the 


36o        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

minimum  salary  for  their  position,  which  fixed  the  annual  incre- 
ment, and  which  determined  the  number  of  years  in  which  the 
maximum  should  be  reached.  And  I  want  to  say  in  reply  to  the 
suggestion  of  His  Honor,  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
that  if  this  bill  should  be  defeated,  the  effect  of  that  defeat  would 
be  to  leave  upon  our  statute  books  in  full  force  a  measure  which 
is  much  more  mandatory  in  its  character  than  the  measure  now 
before  the  Senate,  and  if  it  was  not  for  the  high  character  of  the 
mayor,  I  would  charge  him  with  bad  faith  in  urging,  as  one  of  his 
objections,  that  the  bill  was  mandatory  in  form. 

The  mayor  then  tells  you  that  another  objection — and  by  the 
way,  remember  that  there  is  not  in  the  mayor's  message  a  single 
original  idea.  I  can  take  the  speech  made  by  Mr.  Harrison,  and 
the  speech  made  by  Abraham  Stern  before  the  Committee  of  Cities, 
and  pick  out  line  for  line  every  word  contained  in  the  message  of 
His  Honor,  the  Mayor.  I  do  not  say  the  mayor  did  not  write  his 
message,  but  I  do  say  he  compiled  it  from  the  speeches  made  be- 
fore the  Assembly  Committee  on  Cities  by  two  opponents  of  the 
bill.     Now  that  is  a  fact. 

What  is  the  situation  we  are  dealing  with?  By  this  mandatory 
bill  now  in  operation,  every  provision  of  which  was  suggested  by 
the  men  teachers,  they  have  $900  a  year  to  start  with  and  $105  of 
annual  increment,  with  a  maximum  salary  of  $2160.  Now  they 
decided  that  $900  was  the  lowest  sum  that  should  be  paid  to  a  male 
teacher;  but  when  they  came  to  deal  with  the  women  teachers 
they  said :  "  She  can  get  along  on  $600 ;  and  she  doesn't  need  any 
such  liberal  increase  as  $105  annually ;  she  would  not  know  what  to 
do  with  the  money;  so  we  will  make  her  increment  in  the  way  of 
salary  $40  annually  as  against  our  $105." 

Now  what  is  the  position  of  those  who  favor  passing  this  bill 
notwithstanding  the  objection  of  the  mayor?  They  start  out  with 
the  proposition  that  there  should  be  no  teacher,  man  or  woman,  in 
the  public  schools  working  for  $11  a  week.  If  there  is  any  man 
that  believes  that  $11  a  week  is  proper  compensation  for  a  teacher 
in  the  public  schools,  man  or  woman,  let  him  vote  to  sustain  the 
mayor. 

We  do  not  believe  it  is,  and  as  compared  with  salaries  paid  in 
any  union  free-school  district  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  pro- 
portion to  expenses  of  living,  this  $600  is  the  meanest  salary  paid 
to  any  school  teacher  in  the  State  of  New  York.  We  believe  that 
at  least  $720  should  be  paid  to  any  teacher,  and  we  have  not  dis- 
turbed the  minimum  sum  for  the  men  from  $900. 

Now  you  have  heard  from  Mr you  have  had 

pamphlets  sent  to  you  just  as  I  have — that  this  bill  only  provided 
for  increase  of  the  compensation  of  the  highest  class  of  women 
teachers.  That  is  a  statement  that  was  intended  to  prejudice  you 
against  the  bill.  But  we  had  in  this  bill,  as  the  Chairman  of  the 
Cities  Committee  knows,  put  in  at  the  suggestion  of  the  women, 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR    EQUAL    WORK         361 

a  provision  that  66»%  of  all  money  paid  for  salaries,  should  be 
given  to  the  teachers  below  the  grade  of  7A.  But  that  was  stricken 
out,  not  at  the  suggestion  of  the  women,  but  stricken  out  at  the 
suggestion  that  it  involved  too  great  a  strain  upon  the  discretion 
of  the  Board  of  Education. 

Now  the  Senator  from  the  asked  if  we  ever  knew 

a  Board  of  Education  to  pay  any  heed  to  the  suggestions  of  the 
teachers.  I  have  known  such.  Make  your  Board  of  Education 
responsive  to  the  people  and  they  will  give  heed.  We  have  a 
Board  of  Education  that  cannot  be  reached,  and  if  they  could  be 
reached  they  would  be  scourged  from  their  places  long  since. 

What  is  the  truth  about  it?  One  year  ago  last  February  the 
women  organized,  just  as  the  men  teachers  had  organized  long 
before;  and  exercising  the  greatest  diligence  that  was  possible 
from  February,  1906,  to  February,  1907,  they  succeeded  in  inter- 
viewing many  Commissioners  and  in  securing  a  hearing  by  the 
Board.  But  this  hearing  was  attended  by  only  two  of  the  whole 
Board  of  46.     .     .     . 

Do  you  ask  us  to  leave  this  matter  with  the  Board  of  Education? 
— By  defeating  this  bill  you  do  not  do  it.  Yes,  but  by  repealing 
the  Davis  bill  you  do.  Can  you  repeal  that  bill?  I  would  like 
to  see  the  phalanx  of  male  teachers  that  would  come  up  here  in 
opposition  to  a  proposition  to  repeal  the  Davis  law.  The  Davis 
bill  is  their  bonanza.  They  never  have  complained  of  the  Davis 
bill  nor  will  those  who  are  on  duty  twenty-four  hours  after  judg- 
ment day  complain  of  it.  That  is  the  trouble  with  our  Honorable 
Mayor — and  if  I  do  not  lay  sufficient  emphasis  upon  the  Honorable 
it  is  not  my  fault.  He  asks  you  just  what  the  men  principals  and 
teachers  ask  you ;  just  what  Mr.  Stem  and  Mr.  Harrison  of  the 
Board  of  Education  ask  you.  He  asks  you  to  let  the  Davis  bill 
alone  and  allow  the  advantage  to  continue  with  the  men. 

Now  suppose  that  the  defeat  of  this  bill  did  relegate  the  matter 
to  the  Board  of  Education,  it  would  simply  leave  in  force  a  much 
more  mandatory  enactment.  The  Board  of  Education  from  1900 
had  the  power  to  adjust  these  salaries.  The  Board  of  Education 
could  have  made  the  salary  of  every  woman  teacher  more  nearly 
the  salary  of  the  men  teachers;  the  Board  of  Education  knew 
it  could  not  be  justified  either  in  economy  or  in  morals  that  a 
woman  teacher  should  have  $40  annual  increase  and  the  men 
teachers  $105 ;  and  it  knew  that  the  maximum  salary  for  men 
teachers  in  grades  superintended  by  women  was  greater  than 
that  paid  to  the  sbperintendent  over  them.  All  these  wrongs  and 
injustices  have  been  known  to  the  Board  of  Education  for  seven 
years,  and  yet  not  a  single  move  was  made  by  them  to  adjust  or 
correct  the  wrong.  Not  a  single  step  was  taken  by  them;  and 
that  statement  cannot  be  successfully  contradicted.  But  now  at 
the  fifty-ninth  minute  of  the  twelfth  hour  the  Board  of  Education 
says :     "  We   asked   the   women   teachers   and   the   men  teachers 


362        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

to  leave  the  matter  with  us,  and  they  refused ;  they  insisted  that 
they  were  fighting  for  a  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and 
this  principle  they  would  not  relinquish." 

When  the  Board  of  Education  asked  that  the  matter  be  left 
with  them  they  knew  what  the  women  teachers  knew,  and  what 
the  men  teachers  ought  to  have  known,  namely:  that  leaving  the 
matter  with  them,  under  the  existing  law,  permits  them  no  dis- 
cretion except  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  women  teachers — 
and  to  do  that  they  have  had  seven  years  time;  and  yet  during 
those  seven  years  they  did  not  address  themselves  to  that  question ; 
and  now  in  the  face  of  legislation  almost  unanimously  adopted 
by  both  chambers  of  the  legislature  they  come  and  tell  you  that 
they  should  not  be  interfered  with;  that  their  discretion  should  not 
be  encroached  upon;  that  the  expenses  of  government  would  be 
increased  beyond  measure:  as  to  this  latter  they  know  you  are 
simply  restoring  in  this  bill  the  four  mills  fixed  in  the  original 
Davis  act. 

I  have  criticised  school  expenditures  when  I  thought  they  were 
excessive,  and  I  expect  to  be  called  upon  to  do  so  again.  I  am 
not  prepared  to  say  that  there  might  not  be  great  economies  worked 
out  in  our  department  of  education.  But  I  will  say  this, — and  it 
will  be  proven  at  the  first  opportunity  there  is  to  prove  it,  that 
to  give  justice  to  the  women  teachers  the  citizens  of  the  City  of 
New  York  are  willing  to  be  taxed  whatever  may  be  required. 
There  is  no  man  from  Greater  New  York  on  this  floor,  represent- 
ing a  constituency  that  will  justify  $600  as  the  salary  of  a  teacher 
in  our  public  schools.  He  may  think  he  does,  but  as  soon  as  that 
can  be  tested  it  will  be  discovered  that  he  does  not.  If  you  fail 
to  pass  this  bill  over  the  veto  of  the  Mayor  you  will  leave  in 
operation  a  law  that  fixes  that  as  ample  compensation  for  the 
women  teachers  while  at  the  same  time  it  fixes  $900  as  the 
minimum  compensation  for  the  man  teacher. 

If  this  imposes  burdens  upon  the  people  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
the  cause  for  which  the  burden  is  imposed  is  one  of  such  complete 
justice  that  the  people  will  gladly  bear  the  burden.  I  do  not  know 
how  some  of  my  colleagues  think,  but  you  must  remember  that 
these  teachers  appealing  here  to-day  for  justice  are  not  strangers 
in  New  York.  By  every  fireside  there  can  be  found  the  boy  that 
they  taught  and  the  girl  that  they  taught.  The  parents  do  not 
have  to  take  this  question  on  suspicion,  they  have  the  work  of 
the  women  teachers  as  evidenced  in  the  education  of  their  children ; 
and  they  do  not  believe  that  there  should  be  the  discrimination  in 
wages  that  is  maintained  by  these  present  schedules — framed,  not 
by  our  local  authorities,  but  by  the  Davis  bill.  They  do  not 
believe  it.  There  is  no  question  of  women's  suffrage  here;  there 
is  no  question  of  equal  rights.  There  is  no  question  as  to  whether 
the  saleswoman  in  a  dry  goods  store  is  paid  as  much  as  the  male 
salesman;  there  is  no  question  as  to  whether  the  girl  who  is  a 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        363 

cash  girl  is  paid  as  much  as  the  cash  boy.  There  is  only  the 
simple  question :  Here  we  are  dealing  with  trained  educators — 
and  don't  make  a  mistake  when  you  come  to  consider  trained  edu- 
cators, for  you  will  find  equally  brilliant  examples  among  the 
women  as  you  could  possibly  find  among  the  men — the  question 
is  whether  the  trained  educator  who  has  taken  every  step  required 
to  equip  her  for  the  difficulties  of  her  position  in  teaching  a  class, 
and  in  the  management  of  a  school,  and  as  the  superintendent  of 
a  district,  whether  she  is  because  of  sex  to  be  penalized  under 
the  law  for  part  of  her  salary.  That  is  what  is  involved  in  this 
bill,  and  if  you  vote  to  sustain  the  Mayor  you  will  vote  to  sustain 
the  present  law  under  which  men  will  maintain  their  advantage 
and  the  woman  teacher  will  continue  to  be  at  a  disadvantage;  but 
remember  that  will  only  be  for  a  very  little  while. 


IN  SENATE:    June  3,  1907. 

ORDER  OF  BUSINESS :    Reports  of  Standing  Committees. 

SUBJECT:    Message  of  the  Governor,  in  re  Teachers'  salary  bill. 

Senator  Grady: — Mr.  President,  we  are  confronted  with  a  most 
unfortunate  condition  of  affairs  regarding  this  most  important 
piece  of  legislation.  The  reading  of  the  message  of  the  Governor 
discloses  that  he  labors  under  a  very  erroneous  idea  that  the 
principle  underlying  this  bill  is  a  novelty  in  the  legislation  of  this 
State, — that  for  the  first  time  it  is  suggested  that  for  work  of  a 
g^ven  position  women  shall  receive  equal  pay  with  men;  and  the 
veto  proceeds  from  the  expressed  disinclination  of  the  Governor 
to  have  that  important  governmental  policy  adopted  by  means 
of  a  local  bill  applying  that  principle  to  a  single  locality,  and  in 
that  locality  to  a  single  element  of  the  Civil  Service — ^the  teachers 
in  our  public  schools. 

He  suggests  to  us  in  this  message  that  instead  of  the  mistaken 
course  we  have  pursued  that  a  policy  of  such  importance  should 
be  adopted  only  after  further  consideration  and  with  reference  to 
an  application  of  that  principle  to  both  the  State  and  the  municipal 
divisions  of  the  State. 

We  can  only  ascribe  to  the  Governor's  lack  of  experience  in 
purely  governmental  affairs,  a  position  so  unsound,  and  the  lack 
of  information  upon  which  that  mistaken  opinion  rests,  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  five  months  that  he  has  been  at  the  head  of  affairs 
in  this  State,  he  has  not  had  the  opportunity  to  acquaint  himself 
with  the  details  of  our  governmental  policy,  else  the  vote  never 
would  have  issued  from  the  Executive  Chamber:  for,  that  for 
work  of  a  given  position  women  shall  receive  equal  pay  with  men 
is — and  it  has  long  been — the  policy  of  the  State,  the  policy  con- 
trolling every  department  of  the   Stale,  the  policy  which   shapes 


364         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

every  appropriation  bill  which  has  been  presented  to  you  in  years; 
for  here  you  will  find  in  a  bill  making  an  appropriation  for  the 
support  of  government  the  appropriation  going  to  the  petition,  re- 
gardless of  the  sex  of  the  occupant. 

Let  the  Secretary  of  State  to-day  name  a  woman  for  his 
Deputy,  and  under  the  law  of  the  State  the  pay  of  that  woman 
in  that  position  is  the  same  as  is  provided  by  law  for  the  pay  of 
any  man  who  may  hold  it.  Let  the  Attorney-General  name  a 
woman  as  his  first  or  second  deputy,  and  under  the  operation  of 
the  laws  of  this  State  as  they  are  to-day,  the  pay  of  that  woman 
in  that  position  is  precisely  the  pay  given  to  the  man  who  now  holds 
it.  In  your  appropriation  bills  you  have  your  stenographers  graded, 
and  you  have  your  clerks  graded,  and  for  these  several  positions, 
according  to  grade,  there  are  established  schedules  of  salaries  to 
be  paid  to  men  and  women  alike,  whoever  may  hold  the  position. 
So  that  in  presenting  to  the  Governor  a  bill  which  was  intended 
in  another  municipal  divison  and  toward  another  set  of  public 
employees,  to  vindicate  this  sound  principle — that  for  work  of  a 
given  position  women  shall  receive  equal  pay  with  men — we  were 
not  as  the  Governor  says,  proposing  to  "  establish  "  that  proposition, 
but  we  were  proposing  to  apply  a  proposition  already  established 
and  vindicated  in  the  State  Civil  Service,  to  the  greater  City  of 
New  York  and  to  its  school  teachers.  It  might  have  been  expected 
that  in  criticising  the  principle  which  we  sought  to  make  applicable 
to  a  local  educational  department,  the  Governor  would  have  in- 
quired as  to  the  situation  so  far  as  the  State  Educational  Depart- 
ment was  concerned.  The  State  Educational  Department  is  a  part 
of  the  Government  of  this  State,  and,  subject  to  the  general  prin- 
ciple which  dominates  the  entire  State  Government,  has  in  opera- 
tion the  very  principles  which  the  Governor  regards  as  a  novelty, 
namely,  that  for  the  work  of  a  given  position  women  shall  receive 
equal  pay  with  men. 

Now,  what  is  the  situation  which  this  bill  sought  to  meet?  This 
bill  proposed  to  rectify  two  injustices,  one  of  which  the  Governor 
recognizes,  and  the  other  of  which  he  ignores.  That  you  haven't 
equalization  of  salaries  in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  is  due  not 
to  any  action  taken  by  that  particular  constituency.  They  had 
equalization  there  up  to  1900,  and  then  you  passed  the  Davis  bill 
and  you  destroyed  the  equalization  that  they  had  enjoyed,  and  under 
which  no  complaint  had  ever  been  made  that  some  novel  principle 
was  at  work  in  government  as  far  as  that  Borough  was  concerned. 
That  injustice  of  the  Davis  bill  the  Governor  entirely  ignores,  fail- 
ing to  see  in  what  is  known  as  the  White  bill  an  attempt  to  re- 
establish as  far  as  that  hill  is  concerned  the  equality  which  the 
Davis  bill  destroys. 

The  other  injustice  the  Governor  recognizes  and  deplores;  and 
when  I  read  that  part  of  his  message  I  was  reminded  of  the  chorus 
of  the  popular  song: 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK        365 

"  All  I  get  is  sympathy,  and  it  ain't  a  bit  of  use  to  me ; 
When  I  was  broke  and  hungry  my  friends  all  said 
'Don't  worry,  Bill;  there's  lots  of  fish  down  in  the  brook; 
All  you  need  is  a  rod,  a  line  and  a  hook.' 
Ain't  it  funny,  when  you  look  for  money, 
All  you  get  is  sympathy." 

He  recognizes  that  there  are  glaring  inequalities  whicH  should 
not  be  permitted  to  continue;  and  what  is  his  fatherly  advice? 
You  will  find  it  in  the  last  paragraph — "The  matter  should  be 
left  to  the  Board  of  Education  to  be  dealt  with  locally  as  may 
seem  best,  unless  the  Legislature  is  prepared  to  lay  down  the 
general  principle  for  the  entire  State  and  the  entire  public  service." 

Now,  you  will  understand  that  for  eight  years  these  glaring 
inequalities  have  existed ;  that  for  eight  years  these  glaring  in- 
equalities have  been  "  permitted  to  continue " ;  that  ample  oppor- 
tunity has  been  afforded  to  the  Board  of  Education  to  put  an  end 
to  them;  that  under  the  original  levy  of  four  mills  for  "the 
general  fund "  in  the  Department  of  Education  budget  they  could 
have  equalized  the  salaries  of  teachers  in  all  of  Greater  New  York; 
but  instead  of  using  the  surplus  derived  from  that  four  mill  tax 
for  the  equalization  of  salaries,  they  permitted  it  to  be  reduced  to 
three  mills  in  order  that  they  might  have  an  excuse  for  not  per- 
forming their  duty. 

You  will  understand  that  for  eight  years,  eight  years  spent  in 
a  constant  struggle  to  restore  the  equalization  which  the  Davis 
bill  destroyed,  eight  years  spent  in  a  fruitless  struggle  to  have  the 
salary  go  with  the  position  rather  than  with  the  sex  of  the 
occupant  of  the  position,  that  now  they  are  asked  to  go  back 
again  to  where  for  eight  years  they  have  been  denied  any  sort  of 
relief. 

It  is  true  the  Governor  gives  us  an  alternative;  and  it  is  to 
that  alternative  I  propose  to  address  myself,  and  then  to  close. 
The  alternative  is  in  this  language :  "  Unless  the  Legislature  is 
prepared  to  lay  down  the  general  principle  for  the  entire  State 
and  the  entire  public  service."  This  is  another  way  of  repeating 
the  objection  which  the  Governor  urges,  that  we  have  undertaken 
to  deal  with  the  matter  by  a  local  rather  than  by  a  general  bill, — 
to  use  the  precise  words  of  the  Executive,  "  There  is  no  reason 
why  the  principle  should  be  applied  to  teachers  in  New  York  and 
not  to  those  in  Albany,  Syracuse,  Rochester,  Buffalo  and  elsewhere 
in  the  State." 

Now,  is  the  Governor  sound  in  that?  Are  Albany,  Syracuse, 
Rochester,  Buffalo  and  the  other  municipalities  subjected  to  the 
operation  of  the  same  principle  in  educational  matters  as  obtains 
in  New  York? 

Let  us  see!  The  Legislature  in  its  wisdom  has  applied  to 
Greater  New  York  the  unique  principle  of  commanding  its  citizens 


366         EQUAL  PAY.   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

to  raise  annually  for  the  general  educational  fund  such  a  sum  as 
a  tax  of  three  mills  upon  every  dollar  of  real  and  personal  estate 
within  that  municipality — three  mills  upon  every  dollar  liable 
to  taxation  within  Greater  New  York. 

Here  is  a  distinct  principle  at  work,  applying  exclusively  to 
Greater  New  York,  not  shared  in  by  either  Albany,  Syracuse, 
Rochester  or  Buffalo.  And  then  the  State  has  gone  further,  and 
it  has  prescribed  for  New  York  City  and  for  New  York  City 
alone  of  all  the  municipal  divisions  of  the  State,  the  minimum 
salaries  that  shall  be  paid  to  teachers,  men  and  women,  and  the 
maximum,  and  the  number  of  years  in  which  the  maximum  should 
be  reached.  So  it  cannot  be  for  a  moment  argued  that  the  Legis- 
lature having  created  this  inequality  by  the  application  of  two 
distinct  principles  to  this  particular  constituency,  cannot  redress 
the  inequality  it  has  thus  created  unless  it  establishes  an  inequality 
for  all.  It  is  a  plausible  argument,  as  has  been  said.  As  an  ab- 
stract proposition  it  may  be  sound;  but  we  know  in  its  practical 
application  it  is  not  entitled  to  a  moment's  consideration.  We 
can  point  the  Governor  to  one  hundred  laws  on  the  statute  books 
applicable  to  New  York  and  New  York  City  alone,  establishing, 
regulating  and  continuing  for  that  constituency  a  condition  de- 
fended because  of  the  peculiar  character  of  that  community  and 
because  of  the  peculiar  circumstances  that  surround  such  a  com- 
munity. 

But  with  greater  force  it  has  been  said  that  if  you  are  not 
going  to  address  yourself  to  this  question  at  all  until  you  are 
prepared  to  deal  with  it  as  a  whole,  why  then  you  have  secured 
an  indefinite  postponement  of  the  entire  matter. 

The  Governor  is  not  so  well  acquainted  with  affairs  around  and 
about  the  Capital  as  I  thought  he  was,  when  he  suggests  for  a 
matter  of  this  importance  "that  the  consideration  of  such  a 
matter  should  be  under  circumstances  directing  the  attention  of 
every  Member  of  the  Legislature  to  its  importance,  with  reference 
to  his  own  constituency  and  to  the  State  at  large,  and  not  upon 
the  assumption  that  it  is  a  question  of  purely  local  concern." 

No  one  has  ever  claimed  it  was  a  question  of  purely  local  con- 
cern. No  one  who  has  addressed  an  argument  in  favor  of  the 
passage  of  this  bill  has  ever  suggested  it  was  a  question  of  local 
concern.  It  certainly  did  not  lack  any  consideration  when  on  this 
the  3rd  of  June  we  are  discussing  the  message  vetoing  the  work 
which  began  with  the  introduction  of  the  bill  on  the  6th  of  last 
February.  The  measure  was  heard  in  public  hearing  before  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Cities;  twice  was  it  heard  in  public  hearing 
before  the  Assembly  Committee  on  Cities.  Nor  was  that  all :  for 
after  the  difficulty  and  the  perplexities  of  the  situation,  the  possi- 
bility of  injustice  and  the  necessity  for  an  absolutely  equitable 
treatment  of  the  question  was  made  apparent,  the  Chairman  of 
our  Senate  Cities  Committee,  not  trusting  even  to  his  own  ex- 


Hon.  William  A.  Prendergast, 

Comptroller  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
Speaker  at  "Equal  Pay"  Mass  Meeting,  March  6,  1908. 


EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         367 

perience,  not  satisfied  with  the  embodiment  of  his  own  views,  not 
willing  that  it  should  be  taken  simply  as  a  measure,  the  friends 
or  the  opponents  of  which  were  to  be  satisfied;  but  regarding 
it  as  of  immense  importance  to  the  educational  interests  which 
affect  at  least  one-half  of  the  State,  brought  to  his  assistance 
the  best  minds  that  he  could  consult  and  the  best  talent  procurable. 
At  the  expenditure  of  days  of  his  time  outside  of  this  Chamber 
and  after  official  cares  should  have  fallen  from  him,  he  then  pre- 
pared what  I  am  glad  to  have  called  "The  White  Bill."  Not 
that  I  would  detract  one  iota  from  the  credit  that  belongs  to  the 
Senator  from  the  7th  and  to  the  Honored  Member  of  the  Assembly 
who  originally  introduced  this  bill;  but  I  am  glad  to  have  it 
called  "  The  White  Bill,"  for  it  represents  the  best  efforts  of  the 
directing  force  of  our  Committee  on  Cities;  and  he  need  not  be 
ashamed  to  have  his  name  attached  to  that  measure  of  justice; 
and  I  hope  it  shall  live  to  be  his  monument. 

But,  better  yet,  there  never  was  a  whiter  bill  presented  to  the 
Legislature  of  this  State,  whiter  in  the  justice  which  it  attempted 
to  do  to  all;  whiter  in  the  character  of  those  in  whose  behalf  it 
was  largely  urged. 

I  hope  no  friend  of  the  measure  is  either  disheartened  or  dis- 
mayed. If  a  campaign  of  education  is  necessary  upon  the  next 
floor  we  can  have  it  there  as  well  as  we  have  had  it  on  this  floor 
since  February  last. 

The  principle  underlying  this  bill  is  simple  justice,  simple  justice 
itself,  namely:  "that  for  the  work  of  a  given  position" — again 
to  adopt  the  language  of  the  Governor — "  women  shall  receive 
equal  pay  with  men."  That  is  the  principle  at  stake ;  that  and  that 
only  is  the  principle  to  be  vindicated;  and  the  struggle  for  it  will 
never  end  until  it  is  written  in  the  statute  books  of  this  State,  not 
as  now,  applying  to  every  State  Department;  not  as  now,  applying 
to  the  State  Educational  System;  but  until  it  finds  its  place  in  the 
statutes  of  the  State,  there  to  testify  to  the  sense  of  fairness,  there 
to  testify  to  the  sense  of  justice,  and  there  to  vindicate  the  in- 
telligence, of  the  entire  State. 

There  may  be  a  temporary  set-back  to  our  hopes  and  to  our 
ambitions  in  this  regard.  We  may  yet  have  to  chase  the  miserable 
pretext  by  which  we  are  met  in  seeking  the  vindication  of  a  great 
principle,  that  in  private  employment  men  can  take  advantage  of 
the  needs  of  the  applicant  for  any  place;  that  there  are  conditions 
in  the  labor  market  whereby  you  can  extract  from  a  man  $12.  of 
work  for  $8.;  that  generally  speaking  the  women  who  seek  private 
employment  are  those  whose  needs  require  to  be  immediately  satis- 
fied in  order  that  their  honor  may  be  protected  and  their  homes 
preserved;  and  that  with  such  classes  it  may  be  possible  for  some 
employing  wolf  to  discriminate  between  what  the  wage  earner  is 
entitled  to  and  what  her  necessities  will  compel  her  to  receive. 
But  why  take  such  illustrations  with  which  to  meet  the  unassail- 


368        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

able  and  well  established  principle,  as  far  as  this  State  is  concerned, 
that  for  the  work  of  a  given  position  the  pay  of  women  shall  be 
the  same  as  men,  and  the  pay  of  men  shall  be  the  same  as  the  pay 
of  women.  For  one  whose  heart  is  bound  up  in  the  vindication 
of  this  just  principle  in  order  that  the  worthiness  of  every  father 
and  every  husband  and  every  son  and  brother  of  the  mothers  and 
the  wives  and  the  sisters  of  the  land  may  be  proven,  I  am  willing 
to  watch  and  wait;  and  to  that  struggle  I  promise  the  best  effort 
of  whatever  of  public  life  may  be  left  to  me. 


SPEECHES    AT    MASS    MEETING— COOPER    UNION 

January  30,  1908. 

Presiding,  John  Francis  Harrison. 

Address  by  Senator  Patrick  H.  McCarren: 

Ladies  and  Gentleinen:  My  appearance  here  this  evening  would 
seem  to  be  something  like  an  effort  on  my  part  to  reaffirm  my 
allegiance  to  the  cause.  I  assume  that  there  is  no  necessity  for  me 
to  say  that  I  am  as  loyal  to  the  cause  that  has  brought  this  large 
audience  here  to-night,  as  I  ever  have  been.  (Applause.)  And  to 
repeat  what  the  last  speaker  has  said,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
ultimately  the  cause  will  triumph,  because  I  believe  that  the  cause 
is  of  that  character  so  often  referred  to  and  so  graphically  de- 
scribed by  Shakespeare — it  is  one  that  is  thrice  armed,  because  it 
is  a  just  one. 

There  are  two  features  in  connection  with  the  bill  which  was 
passed  by  the  last  Legislature,  and  which  I  understand  will  be 
introduced  this  year,  substantially  the  same.  The  two  features 
are  the  question,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  principle  of  home  rule, 
and  the  other  feature  is  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  female 
teacher  to  receive,  when  she  performs  the  same  work,  the  same 
wages  that  a  male  teacher  receives  for  performing  the  identical 
work. 

Now  with  reference  to  the  question  of  home  rule.  I  have  been 
chided  by  many  of  the  opponents  of  the  bill  for  the  seeming  in- 
consistency in  my  attitude.  I  have  always  been  regarded  as  a 
home  ruler.  And  I  have  been  moved  to  put  forth  my  best  efforts 
in  the  cause  of  home  rule  in  my  occupation  as  a  legislator,  because 
I  have  been  obliged  to  confront  the  efforts  of  my  Republican 
opponents  in  the  Legislature  to  divest  our  community  of  its 
right  to  govern  itself.  Now  I  have  stood  conspicuously  for  the 
principle  of  home  rule.  And  a  few  evenings  ago  I  was  brought 
to  task  by  the  Superintendent  of  Schools,  Mr.  Maxwell,  who 
happened  to  be  at  a  dinner  where  I  was,  and  commenting  on  what 
I  had  said,  he  called  the  attention  of  the  audience  to  my  incon- 
sistent attitude  in  my  fathering  of  the  so-called  equal  pay  bill, 
and  my  insistence  on  the  right  of  the  City  to  govern  itself,  and 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        369 

my  advocacy  of  the  greatest  amount  of  latitude  in  the  City  for  the 
government  of  itself.  Now  that  is  a  sort  of  specious  argument. 
It  is  necessary  to  understand  the  origin  of  the  so-called  Davis 
law,  which  now  governs  our  educational  system  in  the  City  of  New 
York.  After  a  great  deal  of  agitation,  and  after  a  considerable 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  legislators  to  frame  such  a  bill  as  would 
bring  about  an  equality  of  conditions,  and  a  maximum  of  satisfac- 
tion, the  so-called  Davis  law  was  framed  and  passed  by  the 
Legislature,  and  since  its  passage  it  has  been  practically  in  opera- 
tion with  very  few  slight  changes.  Now  you  want  to  bear  in 
mind  that  the  Legislature  took  to  itself  the  power  to  regulate  the 
salaries  of  the  teachers  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  in  most  all 
of  the  other  Departments  of  the  City  government.  Under  recent 
amendments  to  the  Charter,  the  City  government  is  given  the  right 
to  regulate  the  wages  of  its  employees.  But  it  is  as  specifically 
provided  that  the  wages  of  the  employees  in  the  public  school 
system  shall  be  regulated  by  a  State  Act. 

Now,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  possibility  of  the  entire  repeal  of 
the  Davis  law,  there  is  no  other  way  in  which  you  can  accomplish 
the  purpose  which  you  have  in  view,  except  by  an  amendment  to 
the  Davis  law.  So  that,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the 
school  teachers  and  the  friends  of  the  school  teachers  who  believe 
in  their  cause,  it  is  necessary  to  amend  the  Davis  law.  Now  some- 
times a  man  may  appear  to  be  inconsistent,  but  his  inconsistency 
at  the  time  is  the  only  way  in  which  he  can  be  consistent.  (Ap- 
plause.) If  the  opponents  of  the  bill,  or  those  who  contend  against 
the  purpose  of  the  teachers,  would  advocate  the  entire  repeal  of 
the  Davis  law,  and  give  to  the  local  authorities  the  right  to  fix  the 
minimum  and  the  maximum  salaries,  and  the  schedules  in  be- 
tween, why,  there  might  be  some  consistency,  and  there  might 
be  some  force,  in  their  position.  But  they  insist  on  the  retention 
of  the  Davis  law,  and  oppose  the  proposition  to  amend  it.  So  for 
that  reason,  the  man  who  charges  a  proponent  of  the  teachers' 
bill  with  inconsistency  can  be  said  to  be  more  inconsistent  himself. 
(Applause.)  For  that  reason  I  feel  that  I  am  justified  in  my  atti- 
tude in  favoring  the  bill  that  has  been  put  forth  in  the  interest 
of  the  teachers. 

I  think  that  on  the  principle  of  equality,  on  the  principle  of 
equity,  on  the  principle  of  justice,  and  on  every  other  principle 
that  appeals  to  the  fairness  in  the  composition  of  every  individual, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  where  the  female  teacher  does  the  same 
work  that  the  male  teacher  does,  she  is  entitled  to  the  same  com- 
pensation for  her  work.  (Applause.)  .  .  .  WIe  are  con- 
fronted at  the  outset  of  the  attempt  this  year  to  pass  the  bill  in 
the  Legislature  and  have  it  become  a  law,  with  the  fact  that  we 
have  in  the  Executive  Chamber  the  same  Governor  that  we  had 
last  year.  There  is  no  way  in  which  we  can  change  the  Governor. 
(Laughter.)     I  mean  by  that,  there  is  no  way  in  which  we  can 


370        EQUAL  PAY.  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

change  his  personality.  There  is  a  possibility  of  changing  his 
mind.  Now,  of  course,  we  know  that  Governors  are  liable  to 
change  their  minds  and  political  exigencies  make  almost  every  man 
in  public  office  occasionally  change  his  mind.     (Great  laughter.) 

There  may  be  some  doubt  about  the  force  that  might  be  brought 
into  play  to  bring  about  a  change  of  mind,  inasmuch  as  we  are 
dealing  with  non-voters.  (Laughter.)  But  be  that  as  it  may, 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  position  of  the  Governor  last  year  was 
somewhat  untenable,  his  argument  against  the  bill  being  substan- 
tially one  of  justification  on  the  theory  that  it  was  a  local  measure, 
and  did  not  affect  all  the  territory  within  our  commonwealth.  It 
seems  to  me  this  argument  is  one  that  cannot  be  maintained  with 
that  force  and  with  that  justice  with  which  an  argument  should 
be  equipped  when  it  is  intended  to  bring  about  the  defeat  of  such 
a  measure  as  Governor  Hughes  vetoed. 

Now,  many  instances  might  be  cited  to  show  the  inconsistency 
of  the  Governor.  The  Governor  favored,  and  I  suppose  he  had 
in  his  own  mind  good  reasons  for  favoring,  the  proposition  to 
pass  and  place  upon  the  statute  books  the  so-called  "  Public  Utilities 
Bill."  The  principle  of  that  bill,  it  seems  to  me,  is  just  as  repug- 
nant to  the  mind  of  a  man  who  is  in  favor  of  home  rule  as  is 
the  principle  embodied  in  the  teachers'  bill.  The  public  utilities 
bill  provides  that  the  City  of  New  York,  in  the  matter  of  the 
treatment  of  the  Commission  in  the  so-called  first  division,  shall 
be  mulcted  to  the  extent  of  $1,250,000  per  year  for  the  expenses 
of  that  commission.  Now,  the  Governor  is  not  a  local  official,  he 
is  a  State  officer;  and  yet  the  Governor  is  responsible  for  the 
proposition  that  that  sort  of  an  act  shall  be  passed  and  that  sort 
of  a  burden  shall  be  placed  on  the  people  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  local  authorities  have 
had  no  hand  or  part  in  the  fixing  of  the  salaries,  or  the  amount 
of  money  that  the  people  of  the  City  of  New  York  must  annually 
pay  for  these  officials.     (Applause.) 

It  seems  to  me  that  inasmuch  as  nearly  all  the  representatives 
of  the  City  of  New  York  in  the  Legislature  in  both  branches  were 
substantially  in  favor  of  the  Teachers'  Bill,  that  it  might  be  said 
that  the  local  authorities  are  in  favor  of  the  principles  involved 
in  the  bill.  As  to  whether  the  Governor  will  take  another  view  of 
the  bill  or  not,  I  cannot  say,  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  speak  for 
the  Governor  (laughter)  ;  but  I  want  to  say  that  I  believe  the  bill 
will  receive  the  same  favorable  consideration  at  the  hands  of  the 
Legislature  this  year  that  it  received  last  year.     (Great  applause.) 

Now  in  this  busy  life  that  we  are  obliged  to  lead,  whether  we 
will  or  not,  it  is  well  for  us  to  economize  time.  Time  is  money — 
no  matter  how  many  people  may  believe  that  it  is  not — time  is 
money,  and  time  can  be  saved  by  the  friends  of  this  measure  if 
they  will  bring  all  their  influence  to  bear  upon  the  Governor  and 
if  they  will  busy  themselves  in  the  work  of  convincing  the  Governor 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         371 

that  he  was  wrong.  In  order  to  economize  time  and  in  order  to 
direct  your  efforts,  so  that  they  will  have  the  most  beneficial 
results,  and  so  that  they  will  bring  to  you  the  greatest  amount 
of  satisfaction,  it  is  always  best  to  know  at  the  outset  at  what 
particular  spot  you  should  aim,  so  as  to  accomplish  your  purpose ; 
and  the  purpose  of  the  friends  of  this  bill  should  be  to  bring,  as 
I  say,  all  the  influence  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  one 
man  who  stood  between  the  teachers  and  consummation  of  their 
object.  That  is,  it  seems  to  me,  the  work  that  you  have  in  hand, 
and  that  is  the  direction  in  which  your  efforts  should  go. 

I  can  only  say  to  you  that  so  far  as  the  friends  of  the  bill  in  the 
Senate  of  last  year  are  concerned,  that  it  can  be  safely  said  there 
will  be  no  question  at  all  about  their  attitude;  and  assuming  that 
there  will  be  very  few  changes,  if  any,  in  the  bill,  that  the  bill  will 
speedily  pass  the  upper  branch  of  the  Legislature.  I  want  to  as- 
sure you  all  that  whatever  efforts  may  be  necessary  to  put  forth 
in  whatever  work  the  teachers  may  think  necessary  to  do,  will  be 
done  by  the  friends  of  the  bill  in  the  Legislature  of  this  year  as 
cheerfully,  and  as  happily  and  I  think  as  victoriously,  as  last  year. 
(Applause.) 

Address  of  Senator  Thomas  F.  Grady 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  You  will  see  with  what 
a  regard  for  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  the  ladies  manage.  It 
was  necessary  that  someone  should  stay  up  as  late  as  this,  and  they 
made  up  their  minds  that  it  was  more  in  line  with  my  usual  hour. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  My  presence  here  is  to  inspire  you 
with  confidence  that  the  justice  of  your  cause  is  bound  to  triumph, 
and  to  regard  such  adversity  as  we  have  met  with  in  the  struggle 
as  more  of  accident  than  design.  In  the  few  remarks  that  I  ad- 
dressed to  my  associates  of  the  Senate  upon  the  subject  of  the 
Governor's  veto  of  the  bill,  my  enthusiasm  betrayed  me  into  what 
I  was  afterwards  convinced  was  a  mis-statement,  and  I  may  say 
that  that  is  not  an  unusual  thing  with  me  at  all.  (Laughter.)  I 
charged  that  the  Governor  had  not  investigated  the  question.  I 
have  since  discovered  that  he  did ;  and  now  I  am  forced  to  take 
the  other  position  that  he  was  misled.  He  was  misled  into  sup- 
posing that  he  was  dealing  with  a  bill  that  provides  the  same 
salaries  for  similar  work,  whereas  he  was  dealing  with  a  bill 
that  provides  the  same  salaries  for  identical  work.  (Laughter.) 
.  The  policy  of  the  State  as  embodied  in  every  appropri- 
ation bill,  is  that  the  salary  shall  go  to  the  position  and  not  to  the 
person  occupying  it;  and  every  position  in  our  State  Civil  Service 
to-day  under  the  law  pays  to  women  precisely  the  same  salary 
as  it  pays  to  men  in  that  identical  position. 

The  governor  was  misled,  I  believe,  when  it  was  shown  to  him 
that  women  nurses  in  women's  hospitals  did  not  get  the  same  pay 
as   men  nurses  in  men's   hospitals,   and  that  women  keepers   in 


372        EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

women's  prisons  did  not  receive  as  high  pay  as  men  keepers  in 
men's  prisons;  and  that  you  will  see  is  as  wide  of  the  question  as 
it  is  possible  for  one  to  go.  There  can  never  be  men  keepers  in 
women's  prisons  with  any  degree  of  success,  and  there  would  be 
no  great  ambition  on  the  part  of  women  to  fill  places  as  keepers 
in  men's  prisons.  The  positions  are  not  interchangeable;  there  is 
no  succession  of  grade;  so  that  while  I  give  to  the  governor  credit 
as  he  deserves,  because  he  is  a  busy  man,  a  little  more  busy  this 
jear  than  he  was  last  (applause),  while  I  give  to  him  credit,  I  still 
maintain  the  position — and  I  maintain  it  not  with  reference  to  this 
bill  alone — I  still  maintain  the  position  that  so  far  as  the  State  of 
New  York  has  adopted  any  policy,  it  has  been  one  of  absolute 
equality  for  man  and  woman  in  the  public  service. 

And  then  again,  as  Mr.  Deming  so  clearly  explained,  the  sugges- 
tion which  the  governor  made  that  this  great  boon  should  not 
come  to  New  York  until  we  were  ready  to  give  it  to  all  of  the 
State — we  are  ready  to  give  it  to  anyone  who  asks  for  it.  I  make 
that  proposition  now,  and  although  it  takes  Conklin  to  tell  you 
what  is  going  to  be  done,  I  am  the  best  authority  in  Albany  for 
what  is  not  going  to  be  done;  and  I  say  to  you  that  no  application 
from  any  locality  to  establish  equality  of  pay  for  identity  of  serv- 
ice in  any  part  of  the  public  service  will  he  refused  by  the  legis- 
lature. 

Now  remember  that  when  the  governor  wrote  his  message,  there 
were  but  two  first-class  cities  in  the  State  of  New  York — Buffalo 
and  New  York;  and  to-day  Buffalo,  without  a  legislative  enact- 
ment, pays  the  salary  for  the  positions.  I  have  myself  a  very  de- 
cided feeling  as  to  what  I  regard  as  the  unwarranted  extension  of 
the  veto  power.  It  was  never  so  deeply  impressed  upon  my  mind 
as  last  year  when  all  my  bills  were  vetoed.  (Laughter.)  I  want 
to  suggest  in  all  seriousness  to  the  governor  that  there  is  no  purpose 
in  this  meeting  of  antagonism  to  anybody.  We  have  a  higher  aim 
than  antagonizing  the  governor,  or  opposing  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion or  pajing  our  respects  or  want  of  respect  to  our  male  op- 
ponents of  last  year. 

We  are  here  in  the  cause  of  justice,  and  being  engaged  in  that 
cause,  we  have  a  right  to  believe  we  can  convince  any  fair-minded 
man  that  lives,  that  he  ought  to  be  with  us.  I  would  like  to  ask 
when  it  was  considered  a  part  of  the  executive  power  not  to  re- 
view, but  to  defy  the  legislative  mandate.  What  becomes  of  the 
division  of  the  departments  of  government,  if  when  you  pass  a 
bill  against  the  justice  of  which  not  one  word  can  be  said,  about 
the  constitutionality  of  which  there  is  no  question,  but  which  is 
advocated  in  the  very  message  of  the  governor  himself,  I  want 
to  ask,  when  you  come  to  such  extension  of  the  veto  power,  that 
a  governor  can  write  across  the  act  of  Senate  and  Assembly, 
simply  because  he  does  not  like  the  way  in  which  it  was  done? 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         373 

Not  for  the  reason  that  we  have  been  discriminated  against  in  a 
thousand  other  ways,  but  for  the  special  reasons  concerned  and 
connected  with  this  question,  do  we  have  a  right  to  ask  that  this 
be  made  a  special  case. 

Did  the  governor  realize  that  it  was  the  bill  which  we  sought  to 
amend  that  destroyed  the  equality  that  had  always  obtained  as 
between  men  and  women  teachers  in  the  Borough  of  Brookljm 
(applause)  ?  That  for  years  in  that  Borough,  the  salary  went  to 
the  position,  regardless  of  the  sex  of  the  individual  holding  it? 
That  it  was  the  Davis  bill  and  what  followed  under  it  that  de- 
stroyed that  absolute  equality,  and  that  we  have  an  absolute  right 
to  seek  by  amendment  to  that  particular  act  to  remedy  the  injustice 
that  it  works?  If  that  is  not  so,  then  I  have  a  very  poor  knowl- 
edge of  what  legislation  ought  to  be  and  how  it  can  be  accom- 
plished. /  am  not  looking  for  the  veto  of  the  governor  this  year 
(great  applause),  because  in  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  meet  his 
views  without  compromising  the  p-rinciple  involved,  every  friend 
of  this  bill  is  prepared  to  go  to  the  utmost  limit  (applause).  But 
let  there  be  now  or  hereafter  no  compromise  as  to  the  principle 
(applause).  There  shall  be  no  compromise  as  to  the  principle, 
because  there  can  be  none  without  an  injustice  that  means,  not  the 
settlement  of  the  great  question,  but  its  treament  in  the  most 
vexatious  manner  possible. 

I  want  to  assure  you  that  you  have  not  lost  a  friend  among  the 
members  of  either  House  of  the  Legislature.  (Applause.)  There 
is,  of  course,  a  feeling  of  loyalty  on  the  part  of  those  identified 
with  the  executive,  which  makes  them  hesitate  in  taking  any  posi- 
tion towards  which  he  may  have  expressed  opposition.  But  can 
there  be  any  question  as  to  the  governor's  duty  in  the  premises? 
Not  that  I  am  in  a  position  to  tell  the  governor  as  to  his  duties. 
(Laughter.)  In  his  veto  he  said  that  he  was  confident  that  the 
Board  of  Education  would  correct  the  present  existing  glaring  in- 
equalities and  he  committed  us  to  their  tender  care.  I  expressed 
some  doubt  as  to  what  would  happen.  Well,  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation addressed  itself  to  the  "  glaring  inequalities "  {from  gov- 
ernor's message),  and  found  they  had  no  more  power  to  correct 
them  than  we  had,  that  they  might  recommend,  but  that  that  did 
not  produce  the  coin;  and  that  a  board  which  made  no  pretension 
■whatever  as  educators  in  the  strict  and  narrow  sense,  must  pass 
upon  the  question  as  to  whether  it  would  be  a  good  thing  or  a  bad 
thing  for  our  schools  to  have  teachers  in  the  same  position  receive 
the  same  pay.  After  giving  us  that  long  journey  for  nothing,  when 
we  come  to  the  governor  and  say,  "  We  have  tried  your  plan  and  it 
did  not  work,"  would  it  not  seem  as  if  for  a  year  at  least,  he  would 
try  our  plan.  (Great  applause.)  Not  only  have  we  suffered  from 
that  inconvenience,  but  see  the  position  in  which  we  find  ourselves 
to-night — the   Board   of   Education  passes   a   resolution   that  the 


374        EQUAL   PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

teachers  shall  not  go  to  Albany,  and  as  a  consequence  we  have  to 
bring  Albany  down  here.     (Great  laughter  and  applause.) 

I  want  to  say  while  some  of  us  are  down  here  not  entirely  upon 
the  business  before  the  House,  that  there  is  no  journey  so  long  or 
so  difficult,  but  that  a  majority  of  the  legislature  will  take  it,  in 
order,  as  was  suggested,  that  the  chivalry  of  the  manhood  of  this 
imperial  state  may  be  vindicated.  (Applause.)  I  mean  just  that. 
//  the  women  received  more  salary  than  the  men,  I  could  find  an 
excuse  for  it,  but  I  tell  you  it  takes  away  something  from  a  man's 
dignity  as  a  citizen  and  it  adds  an  element  of  meanness  to  a  man's 
position  as  a  legislator,  when  he  faces  a  condition  in  which  injustice 
is  worked  against  and  upon  the  women  folk,  and  he  must  stand 
with  arms  folded  unable  to  offer  any  assistance  or  to  redress  the 
grievance  under  which  they  suffer. 

As  an  indication  of  the  dignity  of  the  manhood  of  the  state,  I 
would  have  such  law  as  may  be  necessary  passed  now  to  correct 
the  wrong — and  that  is  the  word  I  came  here  to  speak  to-night. 
Do  not  weary  of  the  contest;  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  among  you 
of  ultimate  success — those  to  whom  you  have  entrusted  your  in- 
terests in  the  official  positions  in  your  association  are  capable,  and 
better  than  that,  unselfish,  and  better  than  that,  devoted,  and  what- 
ever may  be  your  experience,  standing  together  in  the  might  and 
in  the  majesty  of  the  influence  which  13,000  good  women  command 
in  any  cause,  you  just  stand  up  for  your  principle  until  it  is  a  part 
of  the  law  of  your  state.  I  believe  the  relief  will  come  this  year. 
(Applause.) 

Now  as  I  said  to  you,  every  effort  will  be  made  by  those  who  are 
interested  in  your  work  to  promote  the  bill,  amend  the  bill,  fix  the 
bill — of  course  you  don't  know  what  that  means — so  that  it  may 
receive  the  executive  sanction ;  but  I  have  only  to  repeat  the  words 
of  that  experienced  statesman  and  politician,  as  he  himself  would 
have  me  call  him.  Senator  McCarren,  that  the  important  work  is 
to  get  all  the  influence  we  can  upon  the  governor  now.  We  may 
not  be  able  to  reach  him  as  handily  in  a  little  while. 

It  is  most  appropriate  that  this  meeting  should  be  held  in  this 
hall,  the  gift  of  one  of  the  best  friends,  if  not  the  best  friend,  that 
education  ever  had  in  this  land,  Peter  Cooper;  a  hall  in  which  all 
the  great  meetings  of  our  citizens  have  been  held — meetings  to  in- 
spire enthusiasm  and  courage  in  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  defense 
of  the  flag;  meetings  to  protest  against  the  injustice  which  has 
been  worked  against  our  fellows  in  other  climes  and  under  other 
governments;  meetings  intended  to  be  productive  of  the  better- 
ment of  social  political  conditions  in  our  own  metropolis — but 
never  in  all  times  has  it  held  a  meeting  more  worthy  of  the  hall 
than  the  meeting  it  holds  to-night.  (Applause.)  Never  was  cause 
more  justly  proclaimed  from  this  platform,  and  never  was  cause 
more  worthy  of  success  than  this  cause,  and  of  its  ultimate  suc- 
cess there  can  be  no  doubt.     (Applause.) 


EQUAL   PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         375 


Address  by  Hon.  Robert  S.  Conklin,  Member  of  Assembly 

There  is  one  sort  of  political  proposition  on  which  we  all  can 
agree,  and  that  is,  that  it  was  of  great  value  to  the  teachers  and 
to  the  community  at  large  for  the  teachers  last  year  to  come  into 
such  close  contact  with  the  various  departments  of  government, 
both  municipal  and  state.  I  do  not  suppose,  since  the  organization 
of  the  schools  in  New  York  City,  that  the  teaching  staff  has  had 
such  a  thorough  comprehension  of  civil  government  as  administered 
in  the  city  and  in  the  state  as  it  has  to-day.  That  was  good,  and 
It  was  valuable  at  that  time  because  of  this — that  there  has  been 
a  noticeable  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  American  people  during 
the  last  score  of  years  to  lose  confidence  in  the  legislative  depart- 
ment of  their  government,  and  to  belittle  it,  and  to  insist  that  it 
shall  be  subservient  to  the  executive. 

Last  year  confidence  in  the  legislative  department  of  the  govern- 
ment reached  its  lowest  ebb.  You  could  scarcely  hear  a  good  word 
for  the  legislature  anywhere.  It  was  the  executive  in  both  the 
state  and  the  nation  that  commanded  the  people's  confidence;  and 
I  say  that  at  such  a  time  as  that,  if  nothing  else  came  of  this  prop- 
osition, it  was  an  excellent  thing  for  the  teachers — the  trainers  of 
the  children,  the  educators  of  the  future  voters,  to  learn  at  first 
hand  the  spirit  of  earnestness  and  conscientiousness,  of  justice 
and  integrity  that  pervades  legislative  halls. 

I  have  here  the  report  of  the  Charter  Revision  Commission  of 
1907.  "  The  so-called  Davis  law,  which  fixes  mandatorily  the 
minimum  salaries  and  annual  increases  to  be  paid  to  the  super- 
vising and  teaching  staffs  of  the  Board  of  Education,  should  be 
repealed,  as  should  all  other  mandatory  provisions  relating  to  ap- 
propriations for  and  expenses  of  the  Board  of  Education.  This 
recommendation  is  made,  not  because  the  Commission  objects  to 
the  schedule  of  salaries  fixed  in  the  Davis  law,  or  because  it  does 
not  believe  that  there  should  be  suitable  and  ample  provision  for 
paying  the  expenses  of  the  Board  of  Education.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  convinced  that  the  element  of  certainty  in  the  schedule  of 
salaries  should  not  be  contravened.  This  recommendation  is  made, 
however,  because  the  Commission  believes  that  all  of  such  matters 
should  be  regulated  by  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment. 
In  other  words,  that  the  principle  of  home  rule  should  be  applied 
to  the  management  of  this  department  in  no  less  degree  than  to 
the  management  of  every  other  department  of  the  city  government." 

It  is  seen  from  this  that  the  Board  of  Education  is  still  a 
separate  and  distinct  entity,  over  which  the  city  exercises  practically 
no  control — there  is  no  fault  found  with  that — but  in  another  place 
is  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  the  principle  of  home  rule  should 
be  applied  to  this  matter  in  no  less  degree  than  in  the  other. 

They  attempt  to  justify  their  position  on  home  rule.    I  am  a 


Zye         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

home  ruler,  the  same  as  my  Democratic  friend  who  preceded  rae. 
T  believe  thoroughly  in  home  rule.  I  had  almost  forgotten  that 
there  is  a  justification  for  state  control  -of  teachers'  salaries  in 
ancient  history.  Here  it  is :  "  The  Emperor  Grattan,  in  306  A. 
D.,  established  a  fixed  schedule  for  teachers  throughout  the  Em- 
pire. While  professional  chairs  in  these  schools  were  filled  for  the 
most  part  through  election  of  the  municipal  government,  some 
were  appointed  direct  through  Emperor  Julian,  he  claiming  the 
right  to  fill  all  appointments."  There  is  surely  a  worthy  precedent. 
Now,  I  am  going  to  sum  up  this  home  rule  proposition  so  far  as 
I  am  concerned  in  as  few  words  as  possible.  In  the  country  and 
smaller  cities  the  training  of  the  child  is  in  the  charge  of  a  trinity, 
the  home  and  the  church  and  the  school,  and  each  bears  its  burden 
well.  In  New  York  City,  imfortunately,  in  many  districts,  this 
trinity — is  three  in  one — and  that  one  is  the  school — the  duties  that 
are  administered  by  the  clergyman,  by  the  parent  in  other  cities, 
too  often  fall  in  this  great  city  where  the  home  and  the  church  is 
so  much  neglected,  upon  the  teacher;  and  she  not  only  becomes 
a  teacher,  but  she  shoulders  the  burden  of  moral  guidance,  and  of 
the  parent  as  well. 

Now,  New  York  is  the  great  gateway  of  the  nation.  Into  it  pour 
the  immigrants  from  every  land,  and  it  is  of  vital  importance,  not 
alone  to  the  municipality,  but  to  the  state  and  nation  as  well,  that 
these  children  immigrants  should  be  well  taken  care  of.  Why,  it 
is  the  teacher  that  takes  these  children  of  the  tenements  and  lets 
into  their  souls  the  only  light  that  their  poor  stunted  childhood 
shall  ever  know.  (Great  applause.)  It  is  because  this  proposition 
in  New  York  City  is  so  much  broader  than  it  is  in  any  other 
city,  that  even  though  we  did  concede,  ivhich  zee  do  not  concede, 
that  education  in  those  cities  was  a  matter  to  be  administered  solely 
by  the  local  authorities,  we  could  not  concede  that  in  this  city, 
where  the  welfare  of  the  young  is  of  such  vital  importance  to  the 
state  and  to  the  nation,  that  New  York  City  alone  should  have  the 
right  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  these  children  and  what 
should  be  done  with  the  trainers  of  these  children. 

Now  what  shall  the  harvest  be?  We  don't  know  just  how  these 
salaries  are  going  to  be  administered.  They  tell  us  that  New 
York  City  is  poor — poverty-stricken.  (Laughter.)  Well,  it  is  a 
matter  of  grave  concern.  The  city  budget  we  have  seen  advance 
in  the  last  ten  years  from  $70,000,000  to  $143,000,000.  New  York 
City  is  the  prodigal  son  among  the  municipalities  of  the  country. 
Because  it  is  a  prodigal  son,  though  it  has  some  just  debts,  there 
is  no  reason  why  those  just  debts  should  not  be  paid.  That  is 
what  we  are  trying  to  do — make  the  city,  prodigal  son  as  it  is,  pay 
its  just  debts. 

I  can  say  what  some  of  the  other  gentlemen  possibly  will  not 
venture  to  say:  One  of  my  reasons  for  advocating  this  is,  that 
the  City  of  New  York  during  the  last  ten  years  has  been  increasing 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         Z77 

salaries.  It  has  exhibited  an  enthusiasm  over  the  advancement  of 
salaries  in  every  department  except  the  Department  of  Education. 
In  many  cases — and  we  noted  them — has  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment  advanced  salaries  in  various  other  city  depart- 
ments recklessly  and  without  regard  for  the  just  deserts  of  those 
who  received  the  advance.  Now,  when  this  goes  on  year  after 
year,  it  must  some  time  or  other  reach  a  limit,  and  some  time  or 
another  it  is  proper  for  the  legislature  to  take  notice  of  it  and 
to  say,  that  if  the  City  of  New  York  shall  raise  and  shall  spend 
millions  annually  in  salary  increases,  that  all  of  those  salary  in- 
creases shall  not  go  to  those  whose  principal  claim  upon  them  is 
the  fact  that  they  are  voters,  but  that  some  proportion  of  it  shall 
go  to  those  who  if  they  are  not  voters,  are  trainers  of  future  voters. 
(Applause). 

I  don't  know  what  is  going  to  become  of  the  bill.  I  hope  for  the 
best  this  year.  But  those  of  us,  while  we  may  differ  sometimes 
as  to  ways  and  means  to  bring  about  a  result,  those  of  us  who  have 
given  this  subject  careful,  earnest,  studious  consideration,  are  all 
united  upon  this  one  proposition  anyway — that  we  hope  sooner  or 
later  that  you  will  be  victorious  whatever  methods  you  may  pursue; 
and  in  your  fight,  the  fight  that  we  are  waging  for  you  and  the 
fight  that  you  are  waging  on  your  own  behalf,  we  wish  you  God- 
speed.    (Great  applause.) 

Address  by  Hon.  James  A.  Donnelly,  Deputy  Attorney-General 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  It  is  not  mere  gallantry 
which  actuates  me  to  declare  that  my  presence  here  to-night  affords 
me  the  utmost  satisfaction  and  the  keenest  pleasure.  The  only 
alma  mater  I  ever  knew  is  the  public  school.  Whatever  regard 
for  learning  I  possess  was  instilled  in  me  by  the  women  teachers 
who  directed  my  youthful  energies,  and  I  should  be  worse  than 
ungrateful  indeed  if  I  neglected  the  opportunity  which  this  oc- 
casion affords  me  of  paying  my  poor  tribute  to  those  who  are 
laboring  so  earnestly  and  so  faithfully  to  make  our  public  school 
system  successful.     (Applause.) 

When  tliis  republic  was  established  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  it  was  confidently  predicted  by  its  enemies  that  the  new 
experiment  in  government  based  upon  the  equality  of  all  before  the 
law,  must  inevitably  end  in  disappointment  and  failure.  Govern- 
ment, contended  those  wiseacres,  w^s  a  matter  which  required 
special  skill;  it  could  never  be  successfully  conducted  by  permitting 
the  uneducated  rabble  to  share  in  its  functions.  The  history  of 
cur  country  for  the  past  century  and  a  quarter  gives  the  lie  to 
those  gloomy  prophecies.  The  idea  which  infected  the  founders 
of  this  republic  has  been  realized.  But  common  candor  compels  the 
statement  that  the  lofty  purposes  by  which  they  were  animated, 
must  indeed  have  ended  in  disappointment  and  failure,  if  it  had  not 


378         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

been  for  the  work  performed  by  the  public  schools  of  America. 
(Applause.)  Nearly  two  centuries  ago  there  was  published  in 
England,  a  pamphlet,  one  sentence  of  which  is  enough  to  entitle  it 
to  enduring  fame,  for  in  that  sentence  there  is  to  be  found  the 
most  sensible  expression  of  political  philosophy  that  has  ever  pro- 
ceeded from  the  mind  of  man.  It  was  written  by  that  eccentric 
genius  Jonathan  Swift.  Swift's  literary  fame  is  more  fairly  es- 
tablished than  his  reputation  for  statesmanship,  and  yet,  about  a 
half  a  century  before  Thomas  Jefferson  gave  to  the  world  his  im- 
mortal Declaration  of  Independence,  the  dean  of  St.  Patrick's  was 
urging  that  that  government  that  did  not  derive  its  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed  was  the  very  definition  and  essence 
of  slavery. 

The  framers  of  the  American  Constitution  were  not  merely 
patriots  inspired  by  love  of  their  own  country,  having  builded  not 
merely  for  their  own  generation,  but  for  all  ages  to  come.  And 
they  observed  that  there  would  be  erected  upon  this  continent  a 
government  dedicated  to  the  principle  of  the  equality  of  all  before 
the  law;  a  government  which  should  be  an  inspiration  and  encour- 
agement to  the  oppressed  of  all  time  to  come.  And  the  history 
of  this  country  amply  attests  the  wisdom  of  the  establishment  of 
that  principle. 

The  Irishman,  bowed  down  beneath  the  yoke  of  oppression  that 
has  lasted  with  hateful  persistency  for  over  seven  centuries,  has 
here  found  a  refuge  from  oppression.  The  boy  driven  from  pillar 
to  post,  in  this  country  of  ours  finds  a  haven — and  an  opportunity 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  industry  undisturbed — likewise  the  Italian, 
the  Russian,  the  man  from  every  clime  and  from  every  country, 
fleeing  from  a  government  which  exacts  for  the  best  of  their  lives 
a  term  of  enlistment  in  the  military  service.  These  foreigners 
speedily  become  American  citizens.  And  their  children  are  as 
proud  of  their  American  nationality  as  the  proudest  descendant  of 
those  who  voyaged  across  the  seas  in  the  Mayflower. 

Now  and  then  we  hear  the  voice  of  the  timid  urging  that  immi- 
gration to  these  shores  be  restricted;  but  I  say  to  those  who  fear 
for  the  safety  of  the  Republic  if  the  influx  of  foreign  populations 
to  these  shores  be  not  restricted  or  impeded,  Democratic  institu- 
tions have  nothing  to  fear.  If  those  who  entertain  that  fear  will 
go  into  the  public  schools  of  this  metropolis  any  day  of  the  week 
when  they  are  in  session,  and  see  the  manner  in  which  the  women 
teachers  are  making  those  children  splendid  American  citizens, 
they  will  quickly  abandon  their  fears.     (Applause.) 

The  principle  involved  in  this  bill  is  so  simple  and  so  plain  that 
to  state  it  is  to  prove  its  justice.  It  is  that  for  the  same  kind  of 
work  there  shall  be  paid  to  women  teachers  the  same  amount  of 
compensation  as  is  given  to  the  men.  When  a  similar  bill  passed 
the  legislature  last  year,  the  governor  of  this  state  vetoed  it  upon 
the  ground,  as  I  understand  it,  that  it  applied  only  to  the  City  of 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         379 

New  York,  and  not  to  the  other  cities  of  the  State.  Our  esteemed 
executive  seems  more  desirous  of  maintaining  and  upholding  the 
principle  of  equality  of  locality  than  the  principle  which  animates 
the  friends  of  this  bill,  to  wit:  equality  of  opportunity.  He  seems 
to  be  more  bent  on  preserving  an  abstract  principle  of  uniformity 
than  in  upholding  a  concrete  proposition  of  justice.  (Applause.) 
My  friends,  it  seemed  to  me,  that  among  the  very  first  to  come 
forward  as  the  warm  advocates  of  this  bill  would  be  the  men 
teachers  of  New  York.  When  Marie  Antoinette  was  made  the  sub- 
ject of  execration  and  ignominy  in  her  own  country,  I  should  have 
thought  ten  thousand  swords  would  have  leaped  from  their  scabbard 
to  resent  the  insult  to  her  Majesty.  Is  chivalry  dead  in  New  York? 
(Applause.)  Have  our  men  become  so  blind — blinded  by  the  love  of 
gain — that  the  ancient  spirit  which  would  fight  for  a  ribbon  and  die 
for  a  smile,  has  become  completely  obliterated?     (Applause.) 

But  women  teachers  of  New  York,  the  principle  upon  which  this 
bill  is  to  succeed  is  not  one  of  chivalry  or  of  manly  generosity  to- 
wards the  female  sex.  To  the  everlasting  credit  of  the  so-called 
weaker  sex  be  it  recorded  that  whenever  she  has  entered  the  list 
to  compete  with  men,  she  has  demonstrated  her  capacity  of  doing 
that  work,  as  good  as  that  done  by  the  men  themselves.  (Ap- 
plause.) And  the  women  teachers  of  New  York,  with  the  capacity 
of  doing  that  work,  to  every  one's  satisfaction,  ask  for  this  con- 
sideration— not  begging  it  as  a  boon — but  demanding  it  as  a  plain 
and  simple  proposition  of  common  honesty  and  common  justice. 
(Applause.)  And  because  there  underlies  this  bill  a  plain  and 
simple  proposition  of  justice,  and  because  it  -finds  an  echo  in  the 
heart  of  every  American  citizen,  who  after  all  is  a  lover  of  fair 
play,  I  think  I  am  safe  in  predicting  for  the  fate  of  the  bill  this 
year  an  overwhelming  success,  and  that  it  will  at  last  find  its 
place  upon  the  statute  books  of  the  State  of  New  York.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Horace  E.  Deming,  Attorney,  at  Cooper  Union,  Jan.  30,  1908 

In  listening  to  Miss  Strachan,  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  after 
all  the  first  purpose  and  the  main  purpose  of  government,  the 
reason  we  need  government  at  all,  is  in  order  to  have  justice.  If 
we  could  all  do  justice,  all  have  justice,  without  any  government, 
what  a  happy  rule  it  would  be.  But  you  cannot  have  justice  unless 
the  government  does  justice.  And  that  is  why  so  often  we  appeal 
to  government.  It  needs  no  argument  to  convince  any  sane  and 
reasonable  person — there  is  quite  a  difference,  you  know,  between  a 
reasonable  and  a  reasoning  person — it  needs  no  argument  to  con- 
vince a  sane  and  reasonable  person  that  a  man  or  a  woman,  a  city 
or  a  state,  a  corporation  or  an  individual,  any  employer  that  pays 
A  a  different  price  from  B  for  doing  precisely  the  same  work,  is 
doing  a  mean   thing.     (Applause.)     Now,   there  is   something  in- 


38o        EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

effably  mean  in  treating  a  woman  worse  than  you  treat  a  man. 
(Applause.)  And  so  you  get  rid  very  simply  and  very  easily  of 
the  complicated  economic  arguments  that  have  been  put  into  the 
public  prints  in  connection  with  this  Teachers'  Bill.  The  treat- 
ment of  the  teachers  in  New  York  has  been  ineffably,  unspeakably 
mean.  If  the  men  are  paid  too  much,  reduce  them  to  the  women's 
salary.  If  the  women  are  paid  too  little,  raise  them  to  the  men's 
salary.  If  neither  salary  is  just,  find  a  salary  that  is  just,  but  for 
the  same  work  pay  the  same  price.     (Applause.) 

But  I  wish  to  talk  of  something  else.  I  do  not  know  whether  one 
felt  more  amused  or  more  exasperated  at  the  long,  learned  edi- 
torials— ignorant  editorials,  if  the  editor  did  not  know — I  presume 
he  did  not — to  the  effect  that  the  great  and  sacred  principle  of 
home  rule  was  violated  when  the  teachers  of  New  York  appealed 
to  the  State  Legislature.  (Laughter.)  And  now,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  what  is  home  rule?  It  is  something  we  need  very  much 
in  this  city,  and  if  we  had  it,  don't  you  think  the  teachers  would 
get  their  rights?  I  do.  (Applause.)  Home  rule  means  a  govern- 
ment of  the  city  directly  responsible  to  the  people  of  the  city  over 
whom  it  exercises  the  power.  We  have  not  that  in  New  York  yet. 
I  hope  we  may  have  it.  Do  you  know  what  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion is?  Do  you  suppose  the  Board  of  Education  is  responsible 
to  the  city?  Have  you  any  idea,  any  of  you  here — editors  or  re- 
porters, men,  women,  visitors,  anybody — have  you  any  idea  that  the 
Board  of  Education  in  this  city  is  responsible  in  any  way  whatso- 
ever to  the  people  of  this  city  or  to  any  elected  officers  of  this  city? 
Do  you  think  there  is  any  earthly  way  by  which  the  people  of  this 
town  or  any  elected  ofUcial  of  this  town  can  hold  the  Board  of 
Education  responsible  for  its  acts?  Well,  there  is  no  such  way; 
and  they  call  that  home  rule. 

There  are  about  four  dozen  men  in  the  Board  of  Education,  each 
one  of  whom  is  in  for  a  five-year  term,  and  he  cannot  be  removed 
except  on  charges,  and  he  has  the  right  to  be  represented  by 
counsel.  Those  of  you  who  are  over  forty — perhaps  there  are  some 
who  will  confess  to  that — will  recall  that  when  the  heads  of  our 
city  departments  were  appointed  in  that  way,  we  never  could  re- 
move them,  if  we  tried.  The  mayor  could  never  get  rid  of  them. 
The  Board  of  Education  is  in  that  unrootable  class.  They  are 
there,  and  they  are  there  to  stay,  and  the  mayor  has  no  more  power, 
no  more  influence,  no  more  right  over  them  than  you,  or  you,  or 
you.  They  are  entirely  outside  of  his  jurisdiction.  All  he  does  is 
to  name  them,  and  that  ends  it  as  far  as  he  is  concerned.  He  can- 
not veto  their  acts;  he  cannot  influence  their  conduct,  they  are  an 
utterly  irresponsible  outside  authority,  and  you  cannot  hold  them 
accountable  for  anything  they  do  as  members  of  the  Board  of 
Education,  as  long  as  they  do  not  steal  or  do  something  of  that 
kind;  and  then  it  is  a  Criminal  Court  process,  and  not  your  affair 
or  mine;  and  that  is  home  rule.    And  so,  when  the  teachers  applied 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         381 

to  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the  Board  of  Education  would  not 
even  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  communication,  and  incidentally 
a  good  while  afterwards  in  the  corner  of  the  minutes,  it  was  found 
that  the  committee  whom  the  communication  had  been  referred  to, 
asked  to  be  excused  from  further  consideration  of  the  communica- 
tion— there  was  no  remedy  at  home,  absolutely  none.  Now,  what 
are  you  going  to  do?  Did  you  know  that  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation was  not  a  city  department?  Did  you  know  that  the  city 
cannot  control  it  in  any  way?  Did  you  know  that  the  Board  of 
Education  makes  its  own  contracts,  that  the  city  does  not  make 
them?  Did  you  know  that  the  teachers,  if  they  are  not  paid,  have 
to  sue  the  Board  of  Education,  that  they  cannot  sue  the  city?  It  is 
a  wholly  independent  corporation,  just  as  independent  as  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad  is,  and  that  is  pretty  independent.  It  is 
not  like  the  Dock  Department;  it  is  not  like  the  Street  Cleaning 
Department  or  the  Bridge  Commission.  Once  in  a  while  the 
mayor  removes  one  of  them — did  you  ever  hear  of  his  removing 
a  Commissioner  of  Education? 

Now,  to  be  perfectly  plain  about  it,  the  Board  of  Education  is 
an  independent  corporation,  organized  under  state  law,  subordinate 
to  nobody  on  earth  but  the  legislature,  having  in  charge  the  state 
function  of  education,  within  the  locality  of  New  York  City;  and 
there  is  no  power  under  the  sun  superior  to  the  Board  of  Education 
within  its  functions  of  education,  but  the  New  York  State  Legis- 
lature; and  there  is  absolutely  no  other  power  to  which  the  school 
teachers  could  appeal  (applause),  and  there  is  no  other  place 
now,  either. 

We  convinced  our  masters^  the  legislature,  that  it  was  their 
proper  function  to  grant  this  increase  of  pay  to  women  teachers — 
that  an  injustice  was  being  done — but  the  governor  vetoed  the  bill. 
He  said  it  was  a  State  Function.  He  said  that  injustice  was  being 
done,  but  he  also  said  that  the  state  could  not  undertake  to  do 
justice  in  one  corner  of  it,  and  that  everywhere  in  every  State 
Department  this  principle  of  justice  should  prevail;  and  so  he 
vetoed  the  bill.  I  trust  that  he  will  see  that  for  once  he  did  not 
see  correctly.  In  its  essence,  his  veto  meant — you  shall  not  have 
justice  anywhere  if  you  cannot  have  it  everywhere.  Now,  there 
is  a  fallacy  there;  and  I  am  disposed  to  believe  that  if  we  are  so 
fortunate  as  to  reconvince  the  legislature,  that  we  will  have  an 
additional  argument  to  present  to  the  governor.  Following  what 
the  legislature  did  last  year,  the  Board  of  Education  attempted  to 
correct  some  of  the  injustice  and  they  recommended  to  our  Board 
of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  a  budget  that  would  have  increased 
the  salaries  and  other  expenses  of  the  Board  of  Education  by 
some  $2,000,000  or  $3,000,000.  What  happened?  Exactly  what 
happened  in  1900.  They  would  not  have  it,  and  they  never  will 
have  it,  and  they  never  have  given  a  proper  appropriation.  They 
always  have  other  use  for  their  money  than  spending  it  for  the 


382         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

education  of  our  children.  /  think  when  the  governor's  attention 
is  called  to  that,  that  we  shall  find  an  additional  argument  for  the 
passage  of  our  bill. 

Address  by  Harriet  Stanton  Blatch 

Teachers,  as  I  have  watched  your  great  battle  I  have  thought 
what  a  tremendous  weight  upon  us  tradition  is.  How  it  cramps 
us;  holds  us  tight.  What  else,  teachers,  than  that  once  upon  a 
time  clear  back  in  the  middle  ages,  women  were  paid  less  than 
men,  and  so  you  are  going  to  be  paid  less  to-day.  But  now  I  am 
going  to  give  you  a  little  optimistic  message  where  there  is  no 
tradition  in  regard  to  women,  and  tell  you  that  there  are  women 
who  are  not  faced  by  this  question  of  unequal  pay  for  equal  work. 
For  instance,  when  young  Dr.  Crawford  this  last  summer  passed 
her  examinations  and  at  last  won  a  place  in  one  of  our  great  city 
hospitals,  and  came  to  the  hospital  door,  she  was  not  told  that  she 
must  take  one-half  of  the  pay  of  the  man  who  had  preceded  her 
in  that  work.  When  Dr.  Barringer,  then  Emily  Dunning,  was  ap- 
pointed the  ambulance  surgeon  at  Gouverneur  Hospital,  she  was 
not  told  that  she  must  take  only  part  of  her  pay.  When  my 
daughter,  Nora  Blatch,  step  by  step  passed  her  examinations,  un- 
til she  reached  her  goal  as  far  as  she,  a  girl  of  twenty-four,  could 
go,  and  became  an  assistant  engineer  in  the  Board  of  Water  Supply 
(applause),  she  was  not  told  that  she  was  to  have  only  a  fraction 
of  the  pay  that  she  was  worth  to  the  city.  Now,  my  dear  teachers, 
I  feel  your  mother  just  as  I  feel  the  mother  of  that  girl,  and  the 
intimate  loving  friend  of  these  other  women  that  I  have  mentioned 
to  you.  I  feel  your  mother,  and  through  every  inch  of  my  body 
goes  rebellion  at  the  injustice  done  you  women.  (Applause.)  I 
have  not  quite  liked  to  mention  these  very  personal  and  dear 
examples  to  me,  but  your  great  leader,  Miss  Strachan,  told  me  I 
must;  and  when  Miss  Strachan  commands,  I  obey;  and  you  have 
to  obey  also.  (Applause.)  Now,  just  one  more  example  I  am 
going  to  give,  and  then  I  will  have  done.  A  few  years  ago  one 
of  the  very  high  positions  in  a  great  city  department  was  vacant. 
A  woman  held  the  next  position  below  that  high  position.  She 
did  all  the  work  of  the  high  position  for  some  years  and  a  half 
or  two  years.  At  last  they  thought  they  would  fill  that  upper 
position  and  they  advertised  the  examination  for  men  only.  Three 
women  in  this  city  were  at  once  alert.  We  went  down  to  the 
offending  person  and  began  to  argue  that  question  with  him  as 
to  making  that  examination  for  men  only,  and  we  argued  and 
argued  with  him,  and  the  argument  got  hotter  and  hotter,  the 
beads  of  perspiration  stood  out  on  his  forehead,  as  first  one  woman 
and  then  another,  and  then  another,  took  her  turn  at  him ;  and 
finally  he  put  down  as  his  trump  card,  "  Ladies,  do  you  realize  the 
salary  cannot  be  changed,  and  it  is  $3000  a  year  ? "    "  Yes,"  we 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         383 

said,  **  we  realize  it,  and  if  a  woman  can  stand  up  under  that 
examination  she  can  stand  up  under  the  $3000  a  year."  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  The  results?  It  was  exactly  like  the  first  inter- 
national yacht  race.  You  know  we  had  to  go  to  England  the  first 
time — we  have  never  had  to  go  again — and  the  race  was  around 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  Queen  Victoria  was  interested  in  the  race,  and 
as  the  Yankee  yacht  came  footing  up  to  the  finish,  she  asked  a  man 
who  was  standing  there  watching  the  race  through  a  field  glass, 
"Well,  what  boat  is  second?"  "Your  Majesty,  there  is  no  sec- 
ond." Our  woman  had  no  second;  she  was  supreme.  There  was 
not  a  second  nor  a  third  to  appoint  from;  they  had  to  gfive  it  to 
her,  and  she  got  the  $3000  a  year.     (Applause.) 

Women  teachers,  why  should  your  profession  he  discriminated 
against  in  the  zvhole  range  of  the  Civil  Service  examinations,  in 
the  placing  in  positions  and  the  paying  of  salaries?  If  I  were  a 
tyrant — some  people  say  I  am — but  I  mean  a  great  big  tyrant  able 
to  do  things,  and  if  the  gods  came  to  me  and  held  in  their  hands 
the  world  and  said  to  me :  "  What  will  you  take  to  rule  ? "  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation  I  would  say :  "  The  schools."  For  I 
would  know  that  the  future  lay  within  the  hollow  of  my  hand. 
For  weal  or  woe,  you  teachers  are  making  the  to-morrow  in  our 
nation.  Oh,  not  to  do  you  justice!  Think  of  it — a  great  community 
discriminating  and  making  their  teachers  feel  discontented,  dis- 
loyal! We  must  win  your  loyalty  and  content  by  doing  you 
justice.     (Applause.) 

Address  by  Rev.  Edward  McGuffey,  Episcopal  Cathedral, 
Newtown 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Ladies:  I  presume  the  only  reason  why  I 
have  been  invited  down  here  to-night  is  that,  as  I  look  on  the 
program,  I  am  the  only  representative  of  any  of  the  churches. 
And  as  the  Church  of  God  in  all  its  branches  has  been  most  in- 
terested not  only  in  women  but  in  education,  I  am  very  glad  indeed 
to  come  down  here  from  the  Borough  of  Queens  and  to  add  what 
my  word  and  influence  may  do  for  the  betterment  of  women  in 
this  regard.  Although  accustomed  to  preaching  sermons  and  oc- 
casionally to  engineering  the  taking  up  of  collections  (laughter), 
it  is  very  seldom  that  I  am  called  upon  to  face  so  many  people; 
and  so  if  I  am  troubled  by  any  embarrassment,  I  trust  that  you  will 
lay  it  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  But  I  would  like  to  say 
as  connected  with  my  interest  in  education  for  seventeen  years 
in  the  old  town  of  Newtown,  I  have  assiduously  worked  with  those 
interested  in  education,  and  with  some  fair  degree  of  success.  I 
may  say  that  the  love  of  education  runs  in  my  veins,  because  I  am 
the  son  of  that  old  man  McGuffey  who  wrote  all  the  McGuffey 
books;  and  if  you  will  do  me  the  honor  to  come  to  my  rectory  I 
will  open  my  fire-proof  safe  and  show  the  original  contract  for 


384         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  original  McGuffey  rhetorical  guide  for  which  my  father  re- 
ceived $500,  payable  quarterly  during  the  year.  But  as  my  mind 
goes  back  to  those  old  times,  I  feel  as  if  I  were  borrowing  my 
father's  plumage;  somewhat  as  Tom  Hood  felt  when  he  went  to 
Paris  and  went  up  in  a  balloon,  and  went  up  so  high 
that  when  he  looked  down  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  it 
looked  as  if  all  his  uncles  were  ants.  (Laughter.)  Mr.  Chairman, 
and  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  have  examined  this  matter  of  the  equal 
pay  of  teachers  with  a  great  deal  of  care  and  I  will  not  go  over  the 
ground  which  Miss  Strachan  and  others  have  so  fully  covered;  but 
I  may  say  in  one  point  I  think  Governor  Hughes  is  right.  I 
think  what  we  propose  that  he  shall  do  for  the  women  teachers  of 
New  York  City,  it  would  be  well  for  him  to  propose  to  do  for  the 
teachers  of  every  city  of  this  state.  There  can  be  no  question  about 
that.  God,  who  gave  women  the  duty  of  bearing  children,  knew 
into  whose  hands  to  place  their  education.  The  best  teachers  of 
the  elementary  schools,  if  not  of  the  high  schools  in  the  world,  are 
the  women  of  to-day;  and  if  God  had  intended  men  to  be  such 
superlative  teachers.  He  would  have  caused  them  to  bear  some  of 
the  women's  burdens.  I  myself  am  a  graduate  of  the  public  schools 
of  Cincinnati.  I  remember  some  of  those  teachers  there.  In  the 
early  course,  the  best  teachers  we  had  were  the  women.  The  best 
teacher  in  the  Woodward  High  School,  was  Miss  Mcllvoy,  whom 
I  remember  well — the  best  teacher  of  one  of  the  best  high  schools 
west  of  the  Alleghanies.  My  old  teacher  when  I  was  in  the  fourth 
reader,  Mrs.  McGill,  I  think  of  now  with  great  pleasure.  She 
was  a  Scotch  woman  who  had  very  bright  red  hair  and  a  fiery 
temper;  but  she  was  the  best,  the  kindest,  the  strongest  teacher. 
I  remember  I  had  been  sent  out  on  numberless  occasions  to  buy 
the  rattan  with  which  I  was  to  receive  my  own  punishment;  and 
yet  at  the  end  of  my  year  there,  we  boys  got  together  and  my 
father  wrote  a  poem,  which  is  still  in  my  mind. 

There  can  be  no  question  about  the  justice  of  your  cause,  and  it 
will  prevail  in  the  end.  Mr.  Chairman,  and  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
what  would  you  think  if  I  should  go  up  here  to  the  horse  market 
and  buy  a  horse  and  be  very  much  pleased,  and  agree  to  pay  $200, 
and  then  discover  the  horse  was  a  mare,  and  say,  "  I  will  only  give 
you  $150?"  (Great  laughter.)  And  if  my  horse  was  a  mare,  Mr. 
Chairman,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  would  not  say,  "  Because  you 
are  a  mare  you  should  only  have  three  quarts  of  oats,  while  the 
gelding  in  the  next  door  gets  four"  (laughter.)  If  an  author 
should  come  with  a  good  book,  through  the  mail,  send  it  to  one 
of  our  publishers,  and  the  publisher  should  agree  to  pay  a  price, 
say  $500  or  $600  for  it,  and  then  find  that  the  author  was  a  woman, 
would  he  be  justified  in  saying,  "  You  shall  have  but  $250  for  the 
book?"  If  a  woman  should  paint  a  portrait,  is  she  to  get  but 
$250  for  a  portrait  for  which  a  man  would  get  $400?  Does  a 
woman  pay  less  taxes  than  a  man,  because  she  is  a  woman?    If 


'EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         385 

she  owns  a  piece  of  property,  are  her  assessments  less  than  they 
would  be  if  she  were  a  man?  There  can  be  no  question  about  the 
justice  of  your  cause;  and  it  will  prevail.  I  am  glad  to  come  down 
here  to  let  you  know  that  the  best  elements  of  the  Borough  of 
Queens,  are  in  this  struggle  with  women  for  equal  right,  for  equal 
pay.     (Great  applause.) 

Resolution  offered  by  Rev.  Henry  A.  Mottet  and  seconded  by 
Ex- Judge  William  H.  Wood. 

Rev.  Mottet: — ^Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  As  an  ex-public  school 
teacher,  and,  thank  God,  as  a  public  school  boy,  too,  I  esteem  it  a 
very  great  pleasure  to  offer  you  for  your  consideration  hereafter 
the  following  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  the  citizens  of  the  City  of  New  York  here  as- 
sembled in  Cooper  Union,  January  30th,  1908,  do  endorse  the 
"  Equal  Pay  Bill "  presented  by  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  urge  the  legisla- 
ture to  pass,  and  the  Mayor  of  New  York  City,  and  the  Governor 
of  the  State  of  New  York  to  approve  the  same. 

The  Chairman:  The  Hon.  Judge  W.  H.  Wood  will  second  the 
resolution  proposed. 

Judge  Wood:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  It  was 
not  until  I  arrived  in  the  hall  to-night  that  I  learned  for  a  cer- 
tainty that  I  should  be  called  upon  to  address  this  large  and  splendid 
audience  upon  the  question  which  had  called  it  together,  in  any  of 
its  aspects.  A  few  weeks  ago  a  couple  of  ladies  interested  in  the 
movement  asked  me  if  I  would  come  here  to  speak  in  favor  of  the 
measure,  and  I  told  them  I  should  very  gladly  do  so,  because  I 
was  a  believer  in  equality.  (Applause.)  I  have  been  preaching 
democracy  all  my  life,  and  democracy,  as  I  learned  it,  knows  neither 
race,  creed,  sex  nor  color.  (Applause.)  It  welcomes  beneath  its 
broad  banners  all  human  beings  as  equal  in  civic  rights  and 
privileges.  And  because  I  believe  in  these  doctrines,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, ladies  and  gentlemen,  it  is  with  the  g^reatest  of  pleasure  that 
I  second  the  resolution  which  has  been  offered  before  you  for  your 
action. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  utterly  unnecessary  for  anyone  to  offer 
arguments  here  in  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  for  all 
human  beings.  The  logic  of  the  adversaries  of  this  measure  to  me 
resembles  the  Peace  of  God  in  that  it  passeth  all  understanding. 
(Laughter.)  The  only  objection  apparently  which  is  really  made 
to  the  measure  is  that  it  in  some  way  violates  the  doctrine  of  home 
rule.  That  point  has  been  answered  in  various  ways  by  the  gentle- 
men who  have  addressed  you,  very  logically  and  very  completely, 
and  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  they  have  all  omitted  the  underlying 
principle  upon  which  our  public  schools  are  founded.  The  public 
schools  of  this  State  are  not  local  institutions  anywhere.    The 


386         EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

Public  School  system  of  our  state  is  embodied  in  its  constitution 
as  a  state  policy  and  there  is  not  a  single  rural  school  district  any- 
where from  Lake  Erie  to  Montauk  Point  that  has  the  right  to 
build  a  schoolhouse  except  by  permission  of  the  authority  of  the 
State  of  New  York;  and,  therefore,  when  people  tell  you  that 
regulating  salaries  of  public  schools  in  any  portion  of  the  state  is 
a  violation  of  the  doctrine  of  home  rule,  you  have  but  to  point  to 
the  constitution  of  the  state  and  to  the  decisions  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  to  furnish  them  with  a  complete  and  satisfactory  answer. 

I  am  very  much  impressed  with  the  speech  of  the  gentleman 
who  preceded  me,  who  so  eloquently  described  this  Republic 
founded  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed.  It  is  needless  for  me 
to  say  that  I  am  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  Miss 
Strachan  when  she  says  that  no  matter  whether  this  contest  wins 
this  year  or  not,  the  teachers  are  in  it  to  win.     (Applause.) 

Resolutions  passed  unanimously. 

SPEECHES    AT    MASS    MEETING— ASSOCIATION    HALL, 

Brooklyn,  March  6,  1908. 

Presiding,  Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor,  Justice,  Appellate  Division, 
Supreme  Court. 

Address  by  the  Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor* 

Presiding  at  Mass  Meeting  held  by  Interborough  Association  of 

Women  Teachers,   in   Association   Hall,    Brooklyn, 

New  York,  March  6th,  1908. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  feel  very  much  honored  at  being  called 
here  to  preside  over  this  meeting.  I  feel,  however,  as  a  presiding 
officer  ought  to  feel,  that  it  is  my  place  to  say  very  little.  I  feel, 
in  fact,  as  Lord  Eldon  did,  when  Home  Tooke,  on  trial  before  him, 
not  liking  the  interference  of  his  Lordship  in  the  trial,  told  His 
Honor  that  his  business  was  to  help  the  tipstaffs  keep  order  in  the 
court  room,  while  the  jury  tried  the  case. 

I  suppose  that  I  am  not  very  well  informed  on  the  subject  of  the 
salaries  paid  to  teachers  of  this  city.  There  are  others  here  who 
are  well  informed,  and  are  able  to  speak  on  that  question.  I  do 
know  from  my  boyhood  up  that  teachers  in  this  country  have  been 
very  miserably  paid.  I  was  brought  up  in  the  country  and  went  to 
what  we  called  in  the  country  the  "  Deestrict  School."  I  remem- 
ber the  poor  teachers — sometimes  a  girl  and  sometimes  a  young 
fellow — who  taught  the  school,  and  for  pay  boarded  around  among 
the  poor  people  of  the  community  in  which  I  was  brought  up,  and 
in  addition  to  their  boarding  around  they  received  a  very  pitiful 
compensation.     In  fact,  if  they  received  no  more  year  by  year,  for 

*  Hon.  William  J.  Gaynor  was  then  Justice  Appellate  Division,  Supreme 
Court.     He  is  now  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         387 

all  their  lives,  their  heirs  would  not  have  any  great  squabble  after 
their  death  over  what  was  left.  That  has  been  the  case  all  my  life 
among  the  teachers  in  our  common  schools — meaning  common  to 
all,  and  open  to  all. 

The  teachers  have  been  very  poorly  paid  in  this  country,  and 
that  holds  good  all  the  way  up  and  down  through  all  scales  of 
teachers  and  professors.  Those  in  our  colleges  are  paid  poorly. 
I  do  not  know  that  there  is  a  head  master  in  this  country  who  is 
receiving  $10,000  a  year.  There  are  head  masters  in  England  re- 
ceiving much  more  than  $10,000  a  year.  As  a  general  proposition, 
I  think  it  may  be  said  that  the  payment  of  teachers  in  this  country 
is  lower  than  that  of  any  of  our  other  public  servants,  and  I  think  the 
country  comes  to  no  good  by  being  too  niggardly  in  regard  to  the 
compensation  of  its  public  servants.  They  should  be  paid  at  least 
fairly  well. 

I  am  told  that  you  girl  teachers  have  to  begin  with  $600  a  year. 
That  is  little  enough,  it  is  less  than  a  policeman  has  to  begin  with, 
and  the  men  in  my  court,  to  keep  order,  begin  with  double  that, 
and  I  am  sure  they  do  a  great  deal  less  than  you  do;  in  fact,  I 
have  a  strong  suspicion  that  I  could  keep  order  without  them 
(laughter),  not  that  I  want  to  cast  any  reflection  on  them.  They 
sometimes  make  more  noise  than  the  whole  courtroom  (laughter). 
$600  is  not  a  large  sum  in  these  times  when  it  costs  so  much  to 
live. 

Now,  as  I  understand,  the  object  of  this  meeting  is  to  assert  the 
proposition  that  girls  and  women  are  entitled  for  the  same  work, 
to  the  same  compensation  as  the  men.  Now,  I  suppose  that  all 
the  men  in  the  public  schools  are  of  the  same  opinion  (laughter), 
and  if  they  are  in  your  favor  I  think  somebody  has  been  playing 
a  practical  joke  on  me.  Yesterday,  at  the  breakfast  table,  an 
envelope  was  handed  to  me,  containing  24  reasons  why  the  salaries 
of  the  girls  and  women  who  are  teachers  should  not  be  increased. 
If  it  is  true  that  they  are  against  you  it  seems  to  me  very  singular 
that  your  male  comrades  in  the  schools  should  not  be  with  you  in 
this  movement.  Certainly,  it  cannot  hurt  them  if  justice  be  done 
you. 

Now,  of  course,  to  a  large  extent,  it  is  an  economic  proposition. 
It  is  a  proposition  involving  a  question  of  justice  and  a  question 
also  of  economy.  On  its  face,  it  would  appear  that  if  a  woman 
does  the  same  work  as  a  man,  and  does  it  as  well  as  a  man  does 
it,  that  she  should  get  the  same  compensation.  In  fact,  it  is  recog- 
nized all  over  this  country  that  women  are  doing  more  efficient 
work  in  our  common  schools  than  the  work  being  done  by  men. 
(Applause).  At  all  events,  it  would  appear  that  if  they  are  doing 
the  work,  at  least,  as  well  as  the  men,  they  should  be  paid  an  equal 
compensation,  unless  there  be  a  good  reason  to  the  contrary,  if 
that  be  possible. 

Now  the  other  side  of  the  proposition  is  that  it  is  said  that  it 


388        EQUAL  'PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

costs  you  ladies  so  much  less  to  dress  yourselves,  and  to  live 
(laughter)  that  you  ought  to  get  less  than  the  men  get.  I  hope 
that  is  so,  as  I  am  bringing  up  several  daughters  myself  (laughter). 
If  that  is  so,  and  it  takes  so  much  less  for  a  lady  to  live  than  it 
does  a  man,  then  it  may  be  that  as  much  should  not  be  paid  to  you 
as  is  paid  to  a  man.  But,  is  that  so?  They  say  the  men  are  all 
married  and  have  big  families  to  support.  Is  that  so?  I  under- 
stand there  are  a  lot  of  bachelors  in  the  public  schools  who  might 
well  be  married. 

Mr.  Byrne,  the  clerk  of  my  court,  told  me  this  afternoon  that 
from  his  knowledge  and  experience  in  life,  he  could  say,  that  as 
to  women — that  it  is  a  known  fact  that  the  girl  who  goes  out  into 
life  in  the  schools  as  a  teacher  or  as  a  stenographer,  or  into  any 
work,  sticks  by  the  rest  of  the  family  and  by  the  old  folks  at  home, 
and  that  the  women  in  this  great  city  that  go  out  to  work  have  as 
many,  if  not  more,  people  dependent  on  them  for  support  as  the 
men  in  the  same  occupation  have.  (Applause.)  Now,  I  have  not 
the  statistics  to  verify  that,  and  I  have  known  all  my  life  that  it 
does  no  good,  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm  or  rush  of  blood  to  the 
head,  to  make  exaggerated  statements.  It  is  better  to  have  the 
statistics;  and  the  matter  for  consideration  is  whether  the  salaries 
paid  to  the  lady  teachers  of  this  city  are  too  low  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end,  and  whether  they  are  fair  in  comparison  with  the 
salaries  paid  to  the  men  for  the  same  service,  and  you  are  all  in 
the  service  of  the  State.  The  State  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  education  any  more  than  keeping  grocery  stores  except  that 
the  State  derives  benefit  from  education.  The  State  maintains  a 
system  of  free  schools  for  that  reason,  to  educate  people  suffi- 
ciently to  keep  government  from  tumbling  down.  Our  free  govern- 
ment rests  on  the  intelligence  of  the  many — on  universal  intelligence. 
In  this  country,  where  you  have  manhood  suffrage,  you  will  come 
out  pretty  poorly  in  the  end,  unless  you  have  a  fairly  well  educated 
moral  man  behind  every  vote,  or  the  great  majority  of  votes. 
Intelligent  men  are  what  count.  The  majority  of  the  men  who 
vote  should  be  able  to  vote  properly.  If  it  were  not  for  that  inter- 
est which  the  States  have  in  the  matter,  the  government  would 
leave  education  to  the  different  religious  denominations,  and  to 
private  management,  just  as  many  other  things  are  left  in  that  way. 

I  will  not  dwell  upon  it  further,  but  introduce  those  who  are  to 
speak  to  you. 

Address  Made  by  the  Hon.  William  A.  Prendergast  * 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  The  few  of  us  men  who  are  left,  and 
it  is  quite  surprising  that  there  are  so  many  of  us  left  after  the 

*  Hon.  William  A.  Prendergast  was  then  Register,  County  of  Kings.  He 
IS  now  Comptroller,  City  of  New  York. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL    WORK         389 

severe  trouncing  that  mere  man  has  had  to-night  (laughter)  I  will 
not  keep  this  up.  If  I  moved  uneasily  on  my  seat  it  was  because 
I  wanted  to  jump  up  in  defense  of  my  luckless  brothers  who  are 
about  this  building.  While  I  am  not  going  to  dissent  from  any 
of  the  decisions,  I  am  going  on  record  to  the  extent  of  saying  that 
I  would  like  to  hear  this  question  or  many  of  these  questions  re- 
garding my  sex  discussed  in  a  meeting  like  this,  where  only  my 
sex  was  represented  (laughter).  I  think  that  if  such  a  meeting 
could  be  arranged,  you  would  have  before  you  a  very  forcible 
demonstration  of  moral  influence. 

I  have  been  asked  to-night  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  subject  of 
civil  service  and  equal  pay.  My  friend.  Colonel  Bacon,  made  some 
reference  to  the  superior  moral  suasion  of  women,  and  to  coming 
into  office  or  going  to  jail.  Now  I  never  had  anything  but  a  woman 
teacher,  and  I  have  at  last  gotten  into  office  (laughter).  I  men- 
tion this  in  order  to  assure  you  ladies  that  tutelage  under  you  is 
no  disqualification  or  barrier  to  reaching  the  high  esteem  of  the 
people  (applause).  It  would  have  been  a  remarkable  thing  if 
your  campaign  had  resulted  in  a  complete  victory.  The  truth  is 
that  there  exists  throughout  this  community  an  honest  belief  on 
the  part  of  many  men — influential  men — that  there  are  good,  strong, 
moral,  economic  reasons  why  there  should  be  a  difference  between 
the  wages  paid  to  women  and  the  wages  paid  to  men;  and  your 
victory  will  not  be  fully  achieved  until  you  have  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing that  element  of  the  error  of  its  reasoning. 

Years  ago  the  requirements  of  the  man  as  the  source  of  earning 
capacity  exceeded  those  of  the  woman.  The  necessity  of  acquiring, 
of  earning,  really  devolved  upon  him;  but  because  that  was  true 
many  years  ago  is  no  reason  whatever  why  it  should  be  regarded 
as  economical  at  this  time,  but  because  it  is  economically  false,  and 
I  believe  Judge  Gaynor  was  absolutely  correct  when  he  said  that 
this  question  was  an  economic  one.  The  great  difficulty  is  in  in- 
ducing men  to  acknowledge  that  times  have  changed  since  several 
hundred  years  ago.  Woman  has  come  to  be  a  very  considerable 
element  in  the  earning  capacity  of  the  nation,  because  economic 
changes  and  economic  requirements  have  compelled  her  to  take 
that  position.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to  array 
against  an  argument  like  this,  economics  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 

A  few  weeks  ago,  the  women  teachers  were  warned  that  they 
were  proceeding  on  a  dangerous  course.  It  was  claimed  that  just 
as  soon  as  they  forced  any  condition  where  the  wages  that  would 
be  paid  them  were  much  higher  than  those  that  had  been  origfinally 
paid,  the  men  would  immediately  look  to  secure  these  positions 
themselves,  and  in  the  competition  they  would  win.  This  argu- 
ment was  fallacious.  In  the  first  place  in  the  business  world,  no 
matter  what  moral  argument  you  may  try  to  introduce,  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  regulates  the  question  of  wages,  and  the  only 
reason  why  larger  wages  are  paid  to  men  than  to  women  is  that 


390         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

there  are  more  available  women  than  men.  But  in  this  case  we  are 
not  dealing  in  a  field  where  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  applies. 
We  are  dealing  with  a  question  that  is  a  civil  service  question.  I 
believe,  and  I  am  sure,  that  everybody  entertains  this  belief,  that 
where  the  law  can  evoke  its  authority  there  should  be  absolutely 
no  discrimination  whatever  between  men  and  women  in  any  position 
where  women  can  give  the  same  service  as  men;  and  if  they  can- 
not, they  should  not  be  permitted  to  occupy  the  position  at  all. 

During  the  last  couple  of  months  I  have  had  occasion  to  become 
a  little  familiar  with  the  Civil  Service;  and  I  have  observed  that 
the  person  who  seems  most  familiar  with  that  law  is  not  the  coun- 
sel of  that  department,  but  the  Civil  Service  employee. 

We  have  certain  laws  passed  in  pursuance  to  the  constitution 
of  this  state  regulating  the  wages  or  salaries  in  Civil  Service  posi- 
tions. In  the  department  where  I  am,*  we  have  women  employees. 
They  are  paid  exactly  the  same  wages  as  are  paid  to  the  men.  It 
is  the  same  throughout  the  entire  state,  although  I  notice  in  one  of 
to-night's  papers  that  someone  contends  that  in  many  parts  of  the 
state  women  are  not  paid  the  same  salaries  as  men  under  the  Civil 
Service  law.  If  this  condition  really  prevails,  it  only  prevails  be- 
cause there  has  been  a  successful  effort  to  get  around  the  Civil 
Service  law  and  disqualify  women  from  occupying  certain  places. 

I  took  occasion  this  afternoon  to  look  over  a  Civil  Service  ex- 
amination list,  in  which  the  competitors  were  called  upon  to  dis- 
play their  efficiency  in  six  studies.  There  were  on  that  list,  as  a 
result  of  the  examination,  53  names  of  people  who  had  received  85% 
and  over.  Thirty-six  of  them  were  women's  names  (applause)  and 
a  woman  led  the  list.  So  much  for  the  argument  that  women  do  not 
rise  to  the  occasion  of  competitive  examination  when  they  have 
men  as  their  competitors.  The  fact  lives;  a  generality  dies  almost 
at  its  birth.  There  has  been  discrimination  against  women  even 
under  the  Civil  Service  law,  but  it  has  always  been  caused  by  men 
in  office,  preferring  to  do  what  they  thought  was  the  popular  thing 
rather  than  the  essentially  right  thing.  For  instance,  in  a  cam- 
paign in  this  county  last  fall,  a  candidate  for  office  in  which  women 
had  been  employed  stated  publicly  as  an  argument  with  which  he, 
no  doubt,  hoped  to  propitiate  the  men  voters,  that  if  he  was  elected 
he  would  appoint  no  women  in  his  office.  He  was  not  elected. 
(Applause). 

In  other  parts  of  the  state,  women  have  been  disqualified,  not 
because  the  law  intended  they  should  be,  but  solely  because  some 
individual  exercised  his  personal  influence,  and  in  that  way  violated 
their  rights.  Now,  this  whole  question  resolves  itself  into  two 
parts:  one  is  the  question  of  law,  upon  which  I  do  not  attempt  to 
pass,  because  I  am  a  layman;  the  other  is  the  issue  of  elementary 
justice.    That  is  a  fundamental  question. 

I  know  a  large  number  of  men  who  teach  in  public  schools.     I 

*  Mr.  Prendergast  was  then  Register  of  the  County  of  Kings. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         391 

have  talked  this  question  over  with  them,  and  /  think  that  their 
position  in  regard  to  this  bill  rests  mainly  upon  the  fact  that  they 
have  a  fear  that  the  authorities,  if  required  to  spend  quite  so  much 
money  on  the  schools,  might  make  an  effort  to  cut  dozvn  the  salaries 
of  all  in  an  effort  to  economise;  and  while  they  give  twenty-four 
reasons  why  this  bill  should  not  be  passed,  I  think  with  that  fear 
removed,  there  would  be  comparatively  little  opposition  by  the  men. 

This  is  a  question  of  justice,  and  justice  rises  above  all  other 
considerations.  Teachers  come  and  teachers  go,  but  justice  is  for- 
ever. 

I  said  to  a  man  teacher  of  my  acquaintance  the  other  day,  "  I 
think  they  will  win,"  and  I  have  some  glad  tidings  to  make  known 
to  you.     He  said :  "  I  think  they  will  myself." 


Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise,  at  Association  Hall, 
Brooklyn,  March  6,  1908 

In  the  matter  of  the  Davis  schedule,  which  the  White  bill  aims 
to  repeal,  I  take  my  stand  with  Superintendent  Maxwell,  who  de- 
clares it  to  be  "  unjust  to  the  women  in  many  respects,"  with  Mayor 
McClellan,  who  admits  that  there  "  is  much  force  in  the  conten- 
tion that  the  present  law  is  unjust,"  and  with  Governor  Hughes, 
who  declares  that  "  glaring  inequalities  now  exist."  To  all  of  this 
I  say  amen, — and  something  more. 

As  one  listens  to  the  objections  which  are  urged  against  the  re- 
peal of  the  Davis  law  and  the  introduction  of  the  White  schedule, 
one  would  imagine  that  it  had  been  proposed  to  repeal  the  Ten 
Commandments  or  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  substitute  some 
base  maxim  in  the  place  thereof.  What  is  it  that  we  would  do? 
Merely  repeal  a  law  which  is  unjust,  unrighteous  and  arbitrary, 
which  provides  unequal  pay  for  unequal  work,  and  substitute  there- 
for a  fundamentally  just  and  righteous  measure,  Equal  Pay  for 
Equal  Work.  The  burden  of  proof,  needless  to  say,  rests  upon 
those  who  favor  inequality.  The  just  demand  of  the  women  teach- 
ers of  New  York,  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work,  is  radical  only  in  the 
sense  of  being  radically  right.  It  lacks  the  one  merit  of  being  new, 
for  as  early  as  1871,  Wendell  Phillips  offered  a  resolution  at  a 
meeting  at  Worcester :  "  We  demand  that,  whenever  women  are 
employed  at  public  expense  to  do  the  same  kind  and  amount  of 
work  as  men  perform,  they  shall  receive  the  same  wages." 

One  of  the  grounds  of  the  Mayoral  veto  last  year  was  the  puta- 
tive violation  of  home  rule.  Governor  Hughes,  on  the  other  hand, 
maintains  the  very  reverse,  and  vetoes  the  bill,  alleging  that  the 
matter  involved  is  not  a  question  of  purely  local  concern,  but  one 
of  general  principles  and,  therefore,  generally  to  be  established,  if  at 
all.  For  one  thing,  mandatory  legislation  touching  educational 
affairs  in  the  city  of  New  York  cannot  truly  be  called  violative 


392         EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 

of  home  rule,  seeing  that  the  Board  of  Education  exercises  a  State 
function  and  operates  as  an  agent  of  the  State,  so  that  the  State 
by  its  Legislature  is  at  home  throughout  the  State  in  matters  edu- 
cational. Again,  the  principle  which  is  embodied  in  the  White  bill 
is  really  established  and  recognized  in  many  departments  of  the 
State.  If  it  were  not,  I  can  think  of  no  better  way  to  bring  about 
its  establishment  than  through  the  enactment  of  such  a  measure  as 
yours,  which  seeks  to  establish  the  principle  in  the  largest  city  of 
the  State,  containing  nearly  half  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
State.  In  this  connection,  as  one  who  has  lived  outside  of  New 
York,  I  would  point  out  the  moral  value  to  the  nation  of  our  great 
city  taking  the  lead  vigorously  and  resolutely  in  such  high  causes 
as  that  for  which  you  are  battling.  It  is  not  enough  that  Greater 
New  York  leads  the  nation  in  its  weekly  Clearing  House  state- 
ments ;  we  would  have  "  Greatest "  New  York  lead  the  nation  in 
causes  which  make  for  national  weal  and  national  righteousness. 

If  the  White  bill  were,  and  it  is  not,  in  violation  of  home  rule, 
technically  speaking,  then  I  say  we  must  choose  between  home  rule 
and  the  golden  rule.  Violate,  if  you  must,  the  political  policy  of 
home  rule,  but  touch  not  the  moral  principle  of  the  golden  rule. 

The  gravamen  of  many  honest  objections  to  the  White  bill  is 
that  it  would  necessitate  an  enormous  increase  of  expenditure  which 
New  York  is  unable  to  meet.  I  find  it  disingenuous  to  oppose  the 
bill  because  of  the  present  financial  stress,  seeing  that  the  same 
objection  was  urged,  and  no  less  vociferously  and  persistently, 
before  the  advent  of  the  present  financial  stringency.  One  is 
tempted  to  believe  that  the  antagonism  is  due  not  so  much  to  hard 
times  as  to  hard  heads. 

If  it  be  necessary  to  practice  economy,  then,  in  the  name  of  com- 
mon honesty,  why  should  the  citizens  of  New  York  suffer  the 
wastefulness  and  profligacy  which  attend  the  mismanagement  of 
the  city's  affairs  and  cry  a  halt  not  to  extravagance,  but  only  when 
an  outlay  is  proposed  which  is  dictated  by  elementary  principles 
of  justice  and  fair  play?  Who  will  venture  to  say  that  economy 
in  the  matter  of  pay  to  women  teachers  of  New  York  would  be 
proposed  if  women  were  voters?  Unequal  pay  for  equal  work  is 
the  foundation  of  the  Davis  schedule,  represents  an  injustice  which, 
it  is  imagined,  can  be  perpetrated  upon  non-voters  with  political 
impunity. 

New  York  cannot  afford  this  "  enormous  increase  of  expenditure," 
— is  dinned  into  our  ears.  Poor  little  New  York  with  its  annual 
budget  of  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions!  One  thing  New 
York  cannot  afford  to  do  is  the  wrong.  One  thing  New  York  can- 
not afford  to  be  is  unjust.  New  York  can  afford  to  do  the  right. 
"  The  right  thing  is  always  in  the  long  run  the  best  thing." 

Two  further  objections  to  the  White  bill,  which  were  voiced  by 
the  Mayor,  are :  first,  that  it  is  mandatory  legislation ;  next,  that 
it  endangers  the  elasticity  of  the  school  system.    The  right  ought 


EQUAL  'PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         393 

ever  to  be  mandatory.  The  Davis  schedule  is  no  less  mandatory. 
Wovi  long  is  the  Board  of  Education  to  be  suffered  to  do  the  wrong 
before  we  are  to  agree  that  the  right  should  be  made  mandatory 
upon  it?  As  for  the  so-called  elasticity  of  the  educational  system 
of  New  York,  I  have  heard  of  elastic  currency  and  of  elastic  polit- 
ical consciences,  but  why  should  an  educational  system,  of  all 
things,  be  elastic?  It  is  more  important  that  it  be  right,  that  it 
be  just,  that  it  be  moral.  The  present  salary  schedule  is  undeniably 
elastic,  seeing  that  it  is  stretched  into  giving  twice  the  wage  to 
men  that  it  awards  to  women  for  the  same  work. 

Upon  one  ground  alone  might  it  be  admitted  to  be  just  that  men 
and  women  should  receive  a  differing  wage,  namely,  if  men  and 
women  perform  different  work  and  if,  moreover,  the  work  of  one  is 
more  important  than  the  work  of  the  other.  But  not  even  the  most 
rabid  glorifier  of  man  makes  that  claim.  We  are  solemnly  told  that 
boys  need  men  teachers  at  a  certain  age.  We  ask  in  turn,  do  not 
boys  and  girls  need  women  teachers  before  arriving  at  a  certain  age 
as  truly  as  boys  need  men  teachers  at  a  certain  age?  The  distin- 
guished Superintendent  of  the  City  schools  has  stated :  "  Women 
teachers  teach  younger  pupils,  boys  as  well  as  girls,  better  than 
men,"  So  that  the  summary  of  the  matter  is  that  men  and  women 
teachers  may  be  said  to  perform  work  different  in  kind  but  not  in 
quality, 

It  cannot  be  said  too  often  that  no  one  would  lessen  the  number 
of  men  teachers  in  the  schools  or  lower  their  salaries.  The  White 
bill  aims  solely  to  raise  women  teachers'  salaries  to  the  end  that 
the  principle,  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  may  be  realized.  Such 
men  as  will  not  wish  to  teach  in  the  schools  if  women  are  to  re- 
ceive the  same  salaries,  the  schools  of  New  York  can  very  well 
afford  to  do  without.  Our  children  will  be  the  gainers  by  their 
retirement.  It  is  urged  with  apparent  seriousness  that  "  the  serv- 
ices of  women  teachers  may  be  obtained  more  cheaply  than  those 
of  men,"  that  it  is  "  not  necessary  to  pay  the  same  salaries  in  order 
to  obtain  a  sufficient  supply  of  women  teachers."  First,  the  injus- 
tice is  perpetrated  and  then  its  results  are  pointed  out  as  excuse 
for  the  continuance  of  the  reign  of  injustice.  What  if  the  women 
teachers  of  New  York  could,  because  of  their  needs,  be  compelled 
to  accept  one-half  of  the  present  salary  which  is  allowed  them? 
Shall  that  course,  too,  be  adopted?  That  is  exactly  what  we  have 
done  under  the  operation  of  the  Davis  schedule.  It  is  that  which 
we  are  resolved  shall  no  longer  be  possible  in  our  city. 

Your  struggle  is  farther-reaching  than  you  know.  It  is  against 
legislation  which  rests  upon  the  shifting  sands  of  inequity  and  in- 
equality that  you  stand.  The  battle  of  the  American  Democracy 
must  ever  be  against  the  injustice  of  caste  and  the  menace  of  priv- 
ilege. The  Davis  Law  represents  the  old  and  perishing  order:  the 
proposed  White  Law  represents  the  new  and  abiding  order. 

The  contest  in  which  you  are  engaged  is  but  a  skirmish  in  the 


394         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

war  in  which  the  supreme  victories  are  yet  to  be  won, — a  war 
that  will  not  be  ended  until  justice  shall  have  been  done  to  woman. 
"Justice,  Justice  shalt  thou  pursue" — justice  to  man,  justice  to 
woman. 

Address  by  the  Hon.  Robert  H.  Elder 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  suppose  Judge  Gaynor's  suggestion 
that  the  Mayor's  veto  in  question  was  last  year's  veto,  was  intended 
to  convey  the  implication,  that  therefore  it  was  hardly  worth  dis- 
cussion. Well,  I  have  read  the  message  and  I  heartily  concur  with 
him, — it  is  hardly  worth  discussing.  /  did  not  And  in  it  a  single 
reason  that  would  induce  me  to  think  for  a  minute  that  the  women 
teachers  of  this  city  are  not  entitled  to  as  much  pay  as  the  men. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  could  not  help  being  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  the  arguments  put  forth  as  reasons  were  merely  subterfuges 
to  hide  the  real  reasons  why  justice  is  not  awarded  to  the  women 
teachers  of  this  city. 

He  had  something  to  say  in  this  message,  for  example,  about 
home  rule.  Why,  the  question  of  home  rule  has  nothing  to  do 
with  this  issue  whatever.  He  also  said  that  the  enormous  expense 
would  be  something  that  taxpayers  would  be  unable  to  bear.  Well, 
I  think  there  is  no  question  here  of  enormous  expense.  When 
you  come  to  think  of  that  reason,  you  must  remember  that,  with 
political  safety,  there  is  only  about  a  certain  amount  of  money 
that  can  be  collected  in  this  community,  through  taxes.  The  real 
question  is  "Who  is  going  to  get  it?"     (Laughter  and  applause). 

On  this  money  question,  I  feel  inclined  to  say  something,  prob- 
ably under  pressure  of  exuberant  youth  (I  am  still  a  boy)  and  I 
don't  know  whether  I  should ;  but  I  know  of  so  much  money  being 
wasted  in  this  community  through  government  influences,  simply 
on  this  question  of  "  divide,"  I  know  that  so  much  graft  went  out 
with  the  opening  of  Livingstone  Street — money  expended  need- 
lessly— spent  in  converting  that  alley  into  a  wide  street;  I  know 
of  so  much  money  that  is  wasted  every  year  through  the  Real 
Estate  Department  of  the  Comptroller's  Office;  I  know  of  so  much 
money  that  is  wasted  ever  year  in  the  building  of  sewers  and  other 
improvements, — that  I  cannot  believe  but  that  the  Mayor  knows  it, 
and  others  know  it;  and  that  when  they  talk  about  keeping  this 
money  from  the  women  teachers  (when  they  know  you  deserve 
it)  that  the  whole  question  is  simply  who  shall  get  it?  (Applause). 
I  believe  this,  too,  that  if  you  women  had  the  right  to  vote  you 
would  get  it.  (Applause).  If  you  had  that  political  value,  you 
would  find  out  that  the  Mayor  would  be  the  first  one  to  veto  his 
veto ;  and  after  all,  this  question  here  of  equal  pay  is  really  a  polit- 
ical question. 

I  know  that  His  Honor,  Judge  Gaynor,  has  said  that  it  is  an 
economic  question.  Th«  only  economic  principle  that  could  be 
applicable  to  a  case  of  this  kind,   is  the  economic  principle  that 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         395 

things  of  equal  value  should  bring  the  same  price;  and  that  the 
service  and  value  of  the  work  of  women  teachers  in  our  public 
schools  is  the  same  as  that  of  men  teachers,  no  sane  person  can 
deny.  (Applause).  In  certain  departments  of  the  school,  there  is 
work  that  only  women  can  do:  the  kindergarten,  for  instance. 
It  is  not  that  women  teachers'  work  is  not  as  good  as  the  men's, 
but  because  you  are  not  worth  as  much  to  the  politicians,  that  you 
are  here.  So  this  is  not  an  economic  question,  but  a  political  ques- 
tion. 

Well,  I  said  that  "home  rule"  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
Now,  let  us  see  if  that  statement  will  bear  the  examination  and 
analysis  which  Judge  Gaynor  said  was  a  good  thing.  We  do  not 
get  enough  of  home  rule,  that  is,  in  the  City  of  New  York,  as  a 
political  community.  The  locality,  of  course,  should  be  permitted 
to  say  what  teachers  shall  be  paid,  but  the  issue  here  is  not  a 
question  of  what  teachers  should  be  paid.  The  question  is  whether 
women  shall  be  discriminated  against  in  favor  of  men.  Do  you 
mean  to  tell  me  that  any  small  body  of  men, — like  the  Board  of 
Education,  any  single  community  like  the  city  of  New  York, — 
should  be  given  the  exclusive  power  to  say  whether  it  shall  do 
right  or  wrong  in  a  great  fundamental  question  like  this?  Should 
it  not  rather  be  written  down  in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  with  the  pro- 
vision for  due  process  of  law,  and  with  those  provisions  that  pro- 
tect and  safeguard  the  individual  liberties  of  men,  and  those  pro- 
visions that  are  intended  to  establish  equality  before  the  law  in 
favor  of  all  human  beings — there  should  it  be  written  that  equal 
services  shall  beget  equal  pay.  Unfortunately,  this  principle  is  not 
there.  But  do  you  not  agree  that  this  question  really  is  for  the 
bill  of  rights  and  not  for  a  small  legislative  body?  Instead  of 
being  referred  to  the  Mayor  or  to  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  it  should 
be  written  down  in  the  fundamental  law,  in  the  Constitution  itself, 
that  women  should  not  be  discriminated  against.  So  I  do  not 
think  it  is  a  question  of  home  rule.  It  is  just  like  many  of  those 
questions  concerning  women  that  came  up  years  ago,  and  which, 
with  the  advance  of  civilization,  were  cast  aside  as  unworthy  the 
thought  of  Christian  people. 

Once,  you  know,  woman  was  not  allowed  to  draw  any  salary  at 
all.  If  she  went  out  and  earned  a  wage  the  husband  drew  it. 
(Laughter).  Those  were  pleasant  days  for  the  men  (laughter) 
and  they  would  have  opposed  the  passage  of  any  bill  to  give  her 
the  right  to  draw  her  own  wages.  It  was  a  long  time  before  the 
law  allowed  woman  to  own  property  and  control  it,  and  only  within 
recent  years  in  the  State  of  New  York  has  woman  been  given  the 
right  to  control  her  own  property.  This  question  to-night  is  right 
in  the  line  of  evolution  and  it  must  be  solved, — probably  not  now, — 
possibly  not  through  this  bill,  but  it  will  come  sooner  or  later — 
that  you  will  get  the  same  pay  as  the  men  for  the  same  work. 

Now,  I  received  one  of  those  circulars  that  Judge  Gaynor  spoke 


396         EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

about,  giving  24  reasons  evolved  by  the  men  against  this  measure. 
I  did  not  believe  that  any  man,  born  of  woman,  could  oppose  this 
bill;  and  what  made  it  worse  to  me  was  the  fact,  as  I  afterwards 
learned,  that  although  the  men  are  attacking  the  women  on  this  bill, 
the  women  have  made  no  attack  on  the  men  at  all.  (Applause). 
The  women  have  not  asked  that  the  men's  wages  be  reduced,  and 
have  not  asked  that  no  increase  be  given  to  them.  Indeed,  they 
have  been  generous  enough  and  careful  enough  to  put  a  clause  in 
the  bill  providing  that  the  pay  now  given  to  the  men  should  not 
be  reduced.  Yet  the  men  are  flooding  the  city  with  these  circulars 
against  this  bill.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  to  you  the  feeling 
that  came  over  me,  when  I  read  that  circular.  I  just  got  the  sen- 
sation of  seeing  a  big  strong  man  striking  at  a  woman,  and  I  felt 
that  I  would  like  to  do  just  what  any  real  man  would  feel  like  doing 
under  such  circumstances  (laughter),  and  I  did  come  pretty  near 
demolishing  the  circular.  This  action  on  the  part  of  the  male 
teachers  is,  to  me,  one  argument  in  favor  of  the  bill. 

I  certainly  thank  you,  my  friends,  for  this  opportunity  of  ap- 
pearing before  you  and  speaking  in  behalf  of  so  just  a  measure. 
It  is  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  have  ever  spoken  authorita- 
tively to  school  marms.  (Laughter).  As  a  rule  they  have  spoken 
with  authority  to  me  (laughter),  and  when  they  did  I  learned  to 
sit  up  and  listen.  Let  us  hope  that  this  bill  will  become  law,  and 
also  that  in  time  to  come,  other  benefits  and  immunities  under  the 
constitution,  that  should  come  to  woman,  will  be  freely  accorded  and 
actively  enjoyed. 

Address  by  the  Hon.  Alexander  S.  Bacon 

A  very  respectable  sprinkling  of  mere  men. 

You  are  very  brave,  and  if  you  are  brave,  what  do  you  think 
of  me  ?  My  title  is  secure,  and  yet  I  must  begin  by  stating  to  you : 
"  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work."  It  is  not  true.  It  is  "  Equal  Pay 
for  Better  Work."  Woman  is  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  training 
of  the  young.  Man  is  not.  There  must  be  a  moral  element  in 
training  to  make  a  good  citizen.  A  man  may  be  very  learned  and  very 
wicked,  and  unless  he  has  instilled  in  him  very  early  in  life  a  re- 
spect for  woman  he  will  be  a  bad  citizen. 

Miss  Strachan  says  you  voted  99.4  for  principle.  Men  would 
not  have  done  it.  They  would  have  taken  the  money  every  time 
(laughter).  Therefore,  women  are  like  ivory  soap — 99.4  pure 
(laughter),  and  if  the  men  had  been  voting  it  would  have  been 
99.5  for  the  increase  and  let  the  principle  go.  I  am  shocked  to 
hear  from  Mr.  Elder  that  there  is  politics  in  this  matter.  I  never 
knew  that  there  was  any  politics  ever  suggested  to  the  mind  of 
the  District  Attorney,  and  he  has  even  suggested  that  some  of  the 
revenues  of  this  great  city  have  been  misapplied.  (Laughter). 
In  the  opening  of  an  alley  into  a  street,  he  has  even  suggested 


'EQUAL   PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK         397 

that  bosses  have  been  privately  enriched.  Far  be  it  from  me  for 
suggesting  such  a  thing — the  necessity  of  a  new  party  where  such 
bosses  do  not  exist     (Laughter). 

This  is  a  subject  of  abstract  justice.  No  voter  has  a  right  in  a 
republic  to  vote  against  his  ideals,  for  in  a  republic,  where  the 
people  rule  the  people,  the  people  would  be  the  victim  and  the 
republic  would  fall.  The  strong  arm  of  a  despot  may  control  an 
entire  nation  of  criminals;  but  in  a  reptiblic  where  the  people  rule, 
the  people  must  live  up  to  their  ideals  or  the  republic  would  fall. 
Therefore,  the  girls  and  the  boys  should  be  trained  with  respect 
for  law  and  morality,  and  woman,  therefore,  is  far  better  fitted  to 
instill  in  the  minds  of  the  young  the  high  ideals  that  form  the  99.4 
of  her  life.  (Applause).  Our  form  of  government  does  not  per- 
mit religious  instruction  in  the  schools,  but  does  permit  moral 
instruction,  and  moral  suasion  by  women  is  of  the  very  highest 
quality.  If  there  be  a  class  of  unruly  boys  who  have  to  have  the 
discipline  of  a  man  teacher,  give  to  that  position  a  higher  salary 
that  you  may  get  a  competent  teacher;  but  if  the  man  fails  and 
Miss  Strachan  be  placed  in  that  place,  and  succeeds,  she  earns  the 
same  salary. 

We  demand  the  highest  qualities  in  our  teachers.  They  must  be 
graduates  of  the  High  School  and  the  Training  School.  Any  man 
with  that  training  thinks  himself  competent  to  be  President  of  a 
Bank  at  $25,000  per  year  (laughter)  ;  and  the  same  moral  qualities, 
intelligence  and  learning  would  receive  a  higher  remuneration  in 
any  other  department  of  the  public  service.  You  therefore  ask 
nothing  but  strict  justice. 

I  do  not  see  how  the  man  is  as  well  fitted,  or  why  he  should 
be  used  at  all  in  our  public  schools.  Their  muscles  are  of  no 
value.  I  occasionally  got  the  benefit  of  that  side  of  instruction 
and  behold  what  a  model  citizen  it  made  out  of  me.  (Laughter.) 
Inasmuch  as  the  male  teacher  is  not  permitted  to  wield  the  rod, 
since  all  discipline  must  be  by  moral  suasion,  who  so  competent 
to  use  it  as  the  women  present?  The  moral  qualities  of  the  teacher 
are  more  important.  The  great  masses  of  our  boys  and  girls  never 
get  beyond  our  grammar  departments.  During  that  formative 
period  their  morals  must  be  given  a  good  start,  or  they  will  land 
in  the  penitentiary  or  in  office.  (Laughter).  Therefore  it  is 
necessary  that  they  should  have  surrounding  them  during  their 
tender  years  the  beneficent  influence  of  women,  and  it  is  the  moral 
influence  of  the  common  people  upon  which  the  republic  must 
depend. 

We  would  have  had  no  republic  after  a  century  of  trial  had  it 
not  been  for  the  public  school  and  the  good  influences  of  old  New 
England.  You  have  a  great  mission  to  perform,  and  it  is  only 
common  justice  that  you  should  have  wages  that  are  equal  to  the 
demands  that  are  necessary  for  that  position.  Let  there  be  no 
wrong  distinction. 


398        EQUAL  PAY  FOR   EQUAL   WORK 


Address  by  Carrie  Chapman  Catt 

I  regret  indeed  that  this  Male  Teachers'  Association  did  not  send 
me  one  of  its  documents.  Perhaps  I  might  have  found  something 
more  important  to  say  to  you  to-night. 

Of  one  thing  I  am  sure,  although  they  may  have  found  24  ex- 
cuses, they  have  not  found  24  reasons. 

Our  public  school  system  exists  in  this  country  solely  as  the 
protector  of  the  greatness  of  this  American  republic.  In  these 
days,  we  Americans  have  mighty  problems  to  solve,  problems  which 
have  no  precedents,  and  yet  when  those  problems  arise  for  dis- 
cussion the  invariable  decision  is  that  the  solution  is  to  be  found 
in  the  public  schools.  We  have  a  mighty  problem  of  immigration, 
and  this  is  also  a  problem  which  may  be  solved  in  the  public  schools. 
Leave  the  matter  to  our  teachers  and  they  will  train  the  children 
so  that  in  the  coming  generation  they  will  be  as  loyal  to  the  stars 
and  stripes  as  children  born  on  our  own  soil.  Within  a  little  time, 
four  great  men,  whose  names  are  known  the  wide  world  over, 
have  written  on  the  question  as  to  why  patriotism  was  upon  a  de- 
cline in  this  country.  They  all  held  that  it  was  declining,  and  each 
one  declared  that  there  was  but  one  solution  for  this  question, 
and  that  was  to  teach  patriotism  in  the  public  schools. 

We  hear  upon  all  sides  of  graft  in  connection  with  corporations 
and  institutions.  The  solution  of  these  difficulties  lies  with  the 
public  schools.  We  of  this  generation  postpone  the  settlement  of 
these  problems,  and  lay  the  burden  upon  our  army  of  public  school 
teachers.  If  we  are  to  put  upon  them  this  responsibility,  why 
should  they  get  less  salaries  in  many  cases  than  men  whose  only 
duty  is  that  of  manual  labor?  What  shall  we  say  when  the  ques- 
tion is  raised  as  to  whether  women  should  be  paid  less  than  men  ? 
That  the  question  should  be  raised  is  an  outrage. 

I  am  a  woman  taxpayer,  and  I  have  glad  news  to  give  to  you, 
and  to-night  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  glad  about  it.  The  taxes 
have  been  raised  and  raised  enormously,  and  for  what  possible 
purpose  could  they  have  been  raised  but  that  the  powers  that  be 
know  that  this  bill  will  pass  the  legislature,  and  pass  if  necessary 
over  the  mayor's  and  the  Governor's  veto,  and  so  they  have  made 
ready  to  pay  those  salaries  when  the  time  comes.  I  intended  to 
be  mournful  about  my  increased  taxes,  but  now  I  see  it  clearly,  be- 
cause I  know  the  reason  why  and  I  congratulate  you  upon  the 
success  which  is  yours  in  advance. 

Address  by  George  Frederick  Eluott 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  Most  of  you  are  cognizant 
of  the  fact  that  this  is  not  my  first  appearance  on  a  public  plat- 
form to  speak  in  behalf  of  woman's  supremacy  in  educational  mat- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL   WORK         399 

ters  and  especially  do  I  feel  it  an  honor  to  speak  before  this  splendid 
assemblage  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  behalf  of  the  "  Equal  Pay " 
bill,  in  the  interest  of  all  the  women  teachers  of  the  greater  City, 
which,  when  passed,  will  eliminate,  for  all  time,  the  distinction  in 
salary  between  the  sexes. 

I  look  upon  this  meeting  as  very  auspicious — auspicious  in  that 
we  have  one  of  the  most  distinguished  jurists  of  this  country  as 
our  presiding  officer — Mr.  Justice  William  J.  Gaynor;  that  we  have 
met  in  a  hall  notable  for  great  meetings  in  this  borough, — meetings 
that  have  been  held  for  the  uplifting  of  our  fellowmen;  and  that 
we  have  met  here  to  make  history. 

This  "  Equal  pay  for  equal  service "  bill,  in  my  judgment,  is 
bound  to  become  a  law  in  this  State,  and  this  presence,  from  plat- 
form to  audience,  will  enter  largely  into  the  influences  which  will 
eventually  bring  about  its  passage. 

The  clear  and  comprehensive  addresses  you  have  listened  to  by 
the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  have  embodied  almost  every 
phase  of  thought  and  argument  that  could  be  presented  on  behalf 
of  this  "  Equal  Pay "  bill,  and  I  hardly  know  that  I  can  say  any- 
thing that  would  add  to  the  strength  of  their  argument. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  I  review  some  of  the  encouragements 
in  the  Governor's  veto  message,  and,  if  possible,  give  some  sound 
reasons  for  renewing  the  work  for  the  re-passage  of  the  bill. 
May  I  say,  almost  at  the  outset,  that  I  am  a  great  admirer  of 
Governor  Hughes,  and  I  think  the  people  of  this  State  are  singu- 
larly fortunate  in  having  such  an  executive  at  the  helm.  No  one 
doubts  his  purity  or  strength  of  character,  his  courage  or  his 
ability.  They  have  all  been  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of 
thinking  men  and  women.  In  the  reasons  he  has  assigned  for 
vetoing  the  "whitest  bill  that  ever  passed  a  Legislature,"  he  had 
no  words  of  censure  of  the  women  teachers  or  their  methods,  and 
I  think  that  the  press  and  the  public  fully  appreciated  this.  He 
tells  us,  among  other  things,  that  "  the  glaring  irregularities  and 
gross  inequalities  that  now  exist  in  the  present  law  clearly  should 
not  be  permitted,"  and  he  disposes  almost  in  a  word  of  the  ques- 
tion of  "home  rule,"  for  he  tells  us  that  "the  Board  of  Education 
is  directly  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Legislature,  and  whatever 
provisions  may  be  found  necessary  or  wise  for  the  purpose  of 
defining  its  powers  or  prescribing  its  policy  must  be  prescribed  by 
the  Legislature,  and  no  other  authority  is  competent  to  make  such 
provision." 

If  the  people  will  get  clearly  into  their  minds  the  fact  that  the 
Board  of  Education  is  an  arm  of  the  State  government,  deriving 
all  its  power  from  legislative  enactment  of  the  State,  and  is  in  no 
wise  subject  to  the  control  or  direction  of  the  city  authorities,  they 
will  better  understand  our  contention  here. 

The  Davis  law  was  enacted,  as  I  have  stated,  to  meet  the  needs 
and  requirements  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  we  simply  ask  the 


40O        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Legislature  to  fix  the  salaries  of  men  and  women  on  the  super- 
vising the  teaching  staff,  and  regulate  said  salaries  by  merit,  the 
grade  of  class  taught,  length  of  service,  and  experience  in  teaching 
cr  supervising,  and  that  no  discrimination  or  difference  in  the 
amount  of  salary  paid  men  and  women  shall  be  made  on  account 
of  their  difference  in  sex  in  the  schools  of  Greater  New  York. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  salary  or  wage  that  we  are  agitating  at  all. 
It  is  purely  the  question  of  service.  In  plain  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
broad  question  is  asked,  "  Is  a  woman,  because  she  is  a  woman,  to 
receive  less  pay  for  service  which  she  actually  renders  than  a  man 
shall  receive  for  the  same  service?"  For  my  part,  I  say,  most 
emphatically,  no,  and  a  thousand  reasons  might  be  advanced  to 
support  my  belief,  but  we  can  do  no  better  than  to  take  the  language 
of  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  the  State,  and  say  that  the 
present  law  presents  "  gross  inequalities  "  which  must  be  remedied 
by  the  Legislature  of  this  State. 

I  think  it  must  be  conceded  that  the  Governor  is  in  a  very  much 
better  position  to  determine  the  equities  of  this  bill  after  a  fourteen 
months'  incumbency  of  his  office  than  when  he  was  called  to  pass 
upon  it  before,  when  he  had  been  but  six  months  at  the  helm.  He 
now  has  the  added  knowledge  of  the  vast  amount  of  labor  that  has 
been  performed  in  spreading  the  matter,  in  all  truth  and  fairness, 
before  the  citizens  of  this  great  city;  in  the  number  of  meetings 
that  have  been  held;  the  vast  correspondence  and  the  petitions 
that  have  been  prepared  and  forwarded  to  him  and  to  those  inter- 
ested in  the  matter,  and  the  large  amount  of  literature  that  has 
been  distributed  among  the  taxpayers  of  our  city;  the  number  of 
addresses  that  have  been  made  and  published  upon  the  subject,  not 
only  by  members  of  both  houses  of  the  Legislature  but  by  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  citizens  of  the  State,  both  men  and 
women. 

Governor  Hughes  is  a  learned  and  far-seeing  man,  and,  as  I  have 
said,  he  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions  and  dares  to  do  right 
at  all  times,  and  I  am  sure  that,  with  the  added  information  before 
him  with  regard  to  the  inapplicability  of  the  principle  for  which 
we  contend  to  the  entire  State,  his  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  his 
oft-times  admitted  justice  of  our  cause,  he  will  have  no  hesitation 
in  reversing  his  former  decision,  and  when  the  Legislature  again 
passes  the  "  White  bill,"  which  it  certainly  will  do,  he  will  append 
his  signature  thereto,  and  thus  become  a  part  of  this  great  his- 
torical movement  which  will  forever  redound  to  the  honor  and 
credit  of  our  Empire  State,  of  which  he  has  proven  himself  to  be 
so  distinguished  an  Executive. 

I  think  that  when  the  law  is  placed  upon  the  statute  books,  it 
will  seem  to  add  a  few  inches  to  the  height  of  every  female  in  the 
State,  and  the  members  of  the  Legislature  will  be  proud  of  having 
taken  part  in  the  legislation  which  has  stricken  from  the  statute 
books  the  words  "  male  and  female,"  for  all  time,  as  affecting  serv- 
ants of  public  education,  and  that  both  sexes  will  hereafter  stand 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         401 

or  fall  on  their  merits  alone,  and  that  position,  and  not  sex,  will, 
for  all  time,  determine  the  value  to  be  attached  to  it. 

Our  cry  has  been  and  ever  will  be  "  Equalization  or  nothing," 
and  tlie  "  White  Bill  "  will  give  us  the  consummation  of  our  hopes. 
I  know  the  women  are  willing,  nay,  anxious,  to  take  their  chances 
with  such  a  law,  and  why  should  the  men  be  afraid  of  their  com- 
peting with  them?  Let  the  battle  begin,  and  may  the  most  cap- 
able competitors  win,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  both 
sexes  being  put  to  the  test  of  their  best  ability,  the  standard  of  our 
public  schools  will  be  second  to  none  in  the  world. 

I  cannot  close  this  somewhat  rambling  talk  without  propounding 
the  query:  "What  woman,  aye,  or  man,  either,  can  read  or  hear 
mentioned  the  following  names  of  distinguished  women  without 
feeling  proud  of  what  they  have  accomplished  for  the  world's  best 
good? 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  George  Eliot,  Elizabeth  Barrett  Brown- 
ing, Jane  Austen,  Clara  Barton,  Maria  Mitchell,  Julia  Ward  Howe, 
Florence  Nightingale,  Madame  Curie,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  Lucy  Stone,  Pauline  Wright 
Davis,  Sarah  Tyndale,  Mathilda  Joslyn  Gage,  Mary  Wollstonecraft, 
Anna  Dickinson,  Amelia,  Bloomer,  Frances  Wright,  Lucretia  Mott, 
Emma  Willard,  Laura  Curtis  Bullard,  Lillie  Devereaux  Blake,  Mrs. 
Lyons  (Holyoke,  Mass.),  Nora  Blatch,  Grace  C.  Strachan,  Dr. 
Elizabeth  Blackwell  (the  first  woman  to  receive  the  degree  of 
M.  D.  in  1849  in  Geneva,  N.  Y.),  Dr.  Barringer,  Dr.  Crawford, 
Harriet  Martineaux,  Emily  Faithful,  Hannah  Longshore.  &c.,  &c 

A  LETTER 

I  count  it  a  personal  misfortune  that  I  am  too  ill  to  go  to 
your  meeting  to-night,  for  I  should  be  proud  and  glad  to  testify 
in  behalf  of  your  cause  of  most  obvious  justice.  Perhaps  it  is 
as  well,  however,  for  it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  restraint  on  such 
a  .subject.  The  idea  that  a  certain  piece  of  work  deserves  a 
smaller  rate  of  compensation  if  it  be  done  by  a  woman  than  it 
would  deserve  if  done  by  a  man  is  a  monstrosity.  That  in  this 
age  it  should  find  any  excuse  is  inexplicable,  and  that  an  en- 
lightened community  should  tolerate  it  to  the  vast  injury  of  some 
of  our  hardest-worked  and  worst-paid  public  servants,  is  enough 
to  make  us  all  ashamed  and  sorry.  It  is  time  we  should  cease 
to  pick  the  lean  purses  of  those  to  whom  we  commit  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  our  interests  and  it  is  time  we  should  say  to  them 
that  if  we  will  pay  teachers  what  their  services  are  worth,  we  shall 
at  least  cease  to  take  advantage  of  any  teacher  for  the  savage's 
reason  that  she  is  a  woman. 

The  other  idea  that  this  community  cannot  afford  this  act  of 
justice  is  still  less  endurable.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  cannot  afford 
to  do  anything  else.  ~0n  the  cold  basis  of  business  economy  there 
is  nothing  but  waste  and  loss  in  fraud  and  injustice.     The  sug- 


402         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

gestion  that  this,  the  richest  city  in  the  world,  cannot  raise  the 
comparatively  small  sum  required  is  absurd.  We  have  never 
seemed  to  find  it  difficult  to  raise  money  to  buy  rotten  fire  hose, 
nor  to  pay  for  the  removing  of  snow  that  is  never  removed,  nor 
to  help  the  poor  but  deserving  paving  contractor.  Then  we  can 
certainly  raise  it  to  pay  these  women  something  remotely  approxi- 
mating a  living  wage.  A  just  enforcement  of  the  taxation  laws 
upon  corporations  and  other  great  interests  would  bring  into 
the  public  funds  a  sum  very  much  greater  than  that  required  here. 
The  thirteen  million  dollars  that  the  Metropolitan  Street  Railway 
Company  owes  at  this  moment  and  has  long  owed  to  this  city  for 
unpaid  taxes  would  go  some  distance  towards  paying  our  de- 
frauded school  teachers.  A  very  small  percentage  of  the  amount 
wrung  from  us  annually  by  the  watered  stocks  and  fictitious  bonds 
of  our  public  utility  corporations  would  give  us  the  money  needed. 
If,  therefore,  we  can  afford  as  a  community  to  supply  the  funds 
for  the  watered  stock  luxury,  and  if  we  can  afford  to  let  the 
corporations  dodge  their  taxes,  we  can  afford  to  pay  public  school 
teachers  some  fraction  of  what  they  earn. 

Of  course  there  is  no  question  that  you  will  win.  No  cause  of 
absolute  and  eternal  justice  was  ever  long  defeated.  But  when  you 
have  won  I  should  like  to  suggest  one  thought  to  you.  You  see 
how  hard  it  is  for  disfranchised  women  to  secure  even  a  modicum 
of  obvious  justice.  Here  and  there  one  body  of  women  or  another 
may  secure  a  single  concession  like  this,  but  do  you  really  think 
that  it  is  possible  for  women  as  a  class  to  secure  economic  justice 
except  by  securing  political  justice?  For  do  you  really  imagine 
that  if  the  women  teachers  had  been  voters  the  politicians  would 
dare  to  trample  upon  such  a  cause? 

With  every  hope  for  your  speedy  and  complete  triumph, 

Yours  very  truly, 

Charles  Edward  Russell. 
March  6,  1908, 

RESOLUTION 

Adopted  at  Mass   Meeting  Held  by   Interborough  Association   of 
Women  Teachers  at  Association  Hall,  Brooklyn,  Mar.  6,  1908. 

Whereas,  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  of  the  City  of  New  York 
is  the  only  statute  in  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York  that 
discriminates  against  women;   and 

Whereas,  The  Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  seeks  to  amend 
Section  1091,  commonly  called  the  "  Davis  Law,"  so  as  to  abolish 
the  discrimination  against  the  women  teachers  of  the  City  of 
New  York, 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  we,  citizens  of  the  City  of  New  York,  as- 
sembled  here   in   Association   Hall,   502   Fulton    Street,   Brooklyn, 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         403 

Friday.  March  6,  1908,  do  unanimously  endorse  the  Women  Teach- 
ers' "  Equal  Pay "  Bill,  and  urge  the  Legislature  to  pass,  and  the 
Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York  and  the  Governor  of  the  State 
of  New  York  to  approve  the  same. 

Resolution  oflfered  by  Rev.  Lypn  P.  Armstrong,  Rector,  Cuyler 
Presbyterian  Church,  Brooldyn. 

Unanimously  adopted. 

CARNEGIE  MASS  MEETING 
The  American  Editorial 

At  our  Carnegie  Hall  Mass  Meeting,  Dec.  17,  1910,  Hon.  Mira- 
beau  L.  Towns  said : 

"  I  assert  here  that  there  has  not  been  a  man  born  of  woman 
who,  by  his  intelligence  or  great  activity  of  individuality  and 
mentality  created  a  new  epoch  in  human  affairs  that  was  not 
indebted  primarily  and  above  all  things  to  the  influence  and  in- 
struction which  he  received  from  his  mother  or  some  other  woman 
up  to  the  time  of  his  adolescence. 

"  When  we  get  away  from  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  Eve,  the 
first  milestone  is  Moses. 

"  And  as  we  advance  step  by  step,  the  occasions  being  too  num- 
erous to  mention  here  to-night,  I  will  refer  to  a  few  modern  in- 
stances such  as  the  mother  of  Henry  IV.  and  Jean  d'Albret,  not 
forgetting  Alfred  the  Great  of  England,  whose  youthful  step- 
mother, married  at  the  age  of  16  years  to  his  old  father,  in- 
structed him  in  music  and  all  of  the  sciences  and  knowledge 
which  at  that  time  were  known  and  gave  him  the  inspiration  to 
start  that  country  which  at  the  present  time  rules  over  so  many 
lands  that  the  sun  never  goes  down  upon  them. 

"  And  then  comes  the  mother  of  Goethe,  and  the  mother  of 
Humboldt;  especially  of  Humboldt,  who  started  a  new  era  in 
geology  and  natural  history  and  who  proclaimed  hundreds  of 
times  that  he  owed  all  his  knowledge  to  his  mother's  teachings. 
The  great  Napoleon  received  his  first  instructions  in  manliness, 
in  virtue  and  honesty  from  his  mother,  and  he  never,  in  the  mo- 
ments of  his  utmost  greatness,  forgot  the  debt  that  he  owed  to 
her  and  had  her  around  him  until  he  lost  his  scepter. 

"  And  if  we  come  down  to  the  history  of  our  own  beloved  land, 
Washington  and  the  memorable  Lincoln,  both  men  who  made 
epochs  in  history,  founding  and  cementing  this  country,  got  all 
that  they  knew  up  to  the  period  of  their  early  adolescence  from 
the  wisdom  and  teachings  of  their  mothers. 

"  This  would  seem  to  ordinary  intelligence  to  refute  the  argu- 
ment that  women  are  not  qualified  to  teach  boys.  If  other  in- 
stances are  necessary,  we  might  cite  Charles  the  Great,  Charles 
XII.  of  Sweden,  the  great  Gustav  Adolph,  Wesley,  Pope  Clement, 


404         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

all  stars  in  the  firmament  of  great  attainments.  But  is  it  neces- 
sary? Right  in  our  midst  from  day  to  day  we  see  the  little  mothers 
in  our  schools  instilling  the  idea  of  morality,  obedience  and  man- 
hood into  the  minds  of  the  conglomerate  masses  which  receive 
the  blessings  of  our  educational  system." 


HUDSON     &     MANHATTAN     RAILROAD     COMPANY. 

(HUDSON    RIVER    TUNNEL    SYSTEM.) 

W.  G.  McADOO  EXECUTIVE  offices. 

President. 

HUDSON  TERMINAL 

30  Church  Street. 

New  York,  December  17,  1909. 
My  dear  Miss  Strachan: — 

A  severe  cold  prevents  me,  much  to  my  regret,  from  participat- 
ing in  your  meeting  to-night. 

You  are  contending,  as  I  understand  it,  for  the  principles  that 
for  the  same  work,  executed  with  equal  efficiency,  women  should 
be  paid  as  much  as  men. 

I  don't  see  how  there  can  be  any  difference  of  opinion  on  this 
point.  The  fact  that  a  given  service  is  performed  by  a  person 
who  wears  breeches  does  not  make  that  service  less  valuable  if 
equally  well  performed  by  a  person  who  doesn't  wear  breeches. 
It  is  the  character  and  quality  of  the  service  itself  that  determines, 
or  should  determine,  its  value,  no  matter  what  the  sex  of  the 
person  who  renders  it.  And  it  makes  no  difference,  or  should 
make  no  difference,  whether  the  performer  has  or  has  not  some- 
body to  support ;  nor  is  it  a  question  of  the  "  emotions,"  except 
in  so  far  as  the  emotions  inspire  fair  play  and  justice. 

If  a  woman  teaches  the  same  classes  in  the  same  grades  as  the 
man,  and  does  it  just  as  well,  she  should  have  the  same  pay  as 
the  man. 

If  a  woman  sells  tickets  on  a  railroad  just  as  well  as  a  man, 
she  should  receive  the  same  pay  as  the  man.  We  voluntarily 
recognized  this  on  the  Hudson  Tunnel  System,  wlicre  women 
are  employed  as  ticket  sellers.  It  was  an  act  of  common  justice, — 
nothing  more.  It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  examples.  The  prin- 
ciple is  sound  beyond  question.  It  is  only  a  matter  of  its  appli- 
cation. 

If  this  be  admitted,  how  can  we  refuse  to  equalize  the  pay  of 
men  and  women  teachers?  If  women  are  discriminated  against, 
why  should  it  be  continued?  The  only  argument  T  have  heard 
against  it  is  that  it  will  increase  taxes.  Even  if  this  be  true,  can 
we  continue  to  perpetuate  injustice  merely  to  keep  taxes  down? 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         405 

We  can't  afford  to  measure  justice  in  dollars.  It  ?hould  be  meted 
out  at  any  cost.  When  the  stricken  people  of  Cuba  cried  out  to 
us  for  justice,  we  didn't  hesitate  to  make  war  on  Spain  because 
it  might  increase  taxes.  We  didn't  count  the  cost  in  blood  and 
treasure  when  we  decided  that  justice  should  be  done.  While 
we  must  be  practical  and  reasonable  in  the  application  of  every 
sound  principle,  we  should  not  be  deterred  from  correcting,  within 
the  limits  of  our  means,  inequalities  or  insufficiencies  in  the  pay 
of  men  or  women  teachers  because  it  may  increase  taxes.  I  do 
not  know  how  far  such  inequalities  or  inadequacies  exist,  but  they 
ought  to  be  promptly  ascertained  and  corrected. 

Modem  economic  conditions  have  forced  women  to  work  in 
the  same  fields  as  men.  That,  of  itself,  is  hard  enough.  No  good 
citizen  should  be  willing  to  put  woman  at  a  disadvantage  or  to 
discriminate  ag^ainst  her  in  the  matter  of  pay  or  opportunity  in 
the  struggle  for  existence. 

With  best  wishes,  I  am. 

Very  sincerely, 

W.  G.  McADOO. 

CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 

Office  of  the  Mayor 

Dec  17,  1909.  m 
Hon.  Mirabeau  L.  Towns,  Chairman, 

Mass  Meeting,  Interborough  Associa- 
tion of  Women  Teachers, 
Carnegie  Hall,  City. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  regret  exceedingly  that  a  previous  engagement  deprives  me 
of  the  pleasure  of  addressing  the  meeting  of  the  Interborough  As- 
sociation  of   Women   Teachers   this    evening. 

I  have  long  been  in  hearty  accord  with  the  movement  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  women  teachers  in  the  school  system  of 
the  City  of  New  York.  It  was  with  great  regret  that  I  found  it 
my  duty  last  May  to  veto  the  so-called  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  bill. 
It  was  in  violation  of  the  principle  of  home  rule,  and  mandatory. 
I  could  obtain  no  satisfactory  estimate  of  its  probable  cost,  the 
figures  submitted  running  all  the  way  from  four  million  to  eight 
million  dollars  increase.  I  have,  since  then,  received  more  care- 
fully prepared  estimates  that  show  that  the  increase  to  the  annual 
budget  would  have  been  about  thirteen  million  dollars. 

I  did  not  feel  that  the  financial  condition  of  the  City  justified 
so  large  an  increase  at  one  time.  In  my  veto  message  I  promised 
to  appoint  a  commission  of  representative  citizens  to  ascertain  what 
could  be  done  in  behalf  of  the  women  teachers  of  the  City.  This 
commission  has  not  yet  reported. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Governor  in  vetoing  one  of  the 


406        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

equal-pay  bills  stated  that  in  his  opinion  this  State  had  not  yet 
accepted  the  principle  of  equal  pay  for  men  and  women,*  and  that 
one  department  of  one  city  should  not  be  singled  out  to  test  the 
new  theory. 

In  the  development  of  the  child  a  woman's  care,  supplementing 
the  love  and  solicitude  of  the  mother,  has  always  been  recognized 
as  the  ideal  influence  under  which  our  future  citizens  should  be 
trained  in  their  youth.  The  acknowledgment  of  the  fact  that 
women  teachers  are  the  best,  if  not  the  only  agents  of  the  State, 
to  educate  the  younger  children,  is  nothing  but  a  recognition  and 
endorsement  of  our  early  training. 

For  the  teaching  of  little  children  there  can  be  no  question  but 
that  women  are  far  superior  to  men,  and  that  they  are  therefore 
entitled  to  a  higher  rate  of  compensation. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  harsh  rule  of  the  commercial  world — 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand — should  be  applied  to  a  condition 
so  different  from  the  average  problems  of  daily  life. 

The  proposed  plan  to  raise  the  salaries  of  women  teachers  of 
the  lower  grades  by  a  certain  annual  increase  to  be  determined 
by  the  local  authorities  and  controlled  by  the  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment  seems  to  have  been  carefully  thought  out  and 
to  be  worthy  of  the  most  respectful  consideration.  It  will  do  away 
with  the  greatest  objection  to  all  previous  plans — that  of  at  once 
increasing  the  annual  budget  by  many  millions  of  dollars. 

I  believe  that  a  gradual  increase  of  the  salaries  of  the  women 
teachers,  beginning  with  those  receiving  the  lowest  pay,  is  the 
best  plan  to  suggest  to  the  incoming  administration,  and  I  wish 
you  all  success  in  conquering  this  first  step  in  the  right  direction. 

Respectfully, 

GEO.  B.  McCLELLAN, 

Mayor. 


ABSTRACT  OF  SPEECH  OF  JUSTICE  JOHN  WOODWARD 
AS  TOASTMASTER  AT  THE  FIRST  ANNUAL  DIN- 
NER OF  THE  INTERBOROUGH  ASSOCIATION  OF 
WOMEN  TEACHERS  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY,  AT  THE 
WALDORF-ASTORIA,  SATURDAY  EVENING,  JUNE  22. 
1907. 

I  am  glad  to  preside  at  this,  the  first,  annual  dinner  of  the  Inter- 
borough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  of  New  York  City.  It 
is,  I  understand,  the  first  public  banfluet  ever  given  by  an  organiza- 
tion of  professional  women,  and  it  may  rightly  be  termed  the 
beginning  of  a  new  social  era.  It  is,  therefore,  no  common  occa- 
sion.    It   is,   in   fact,   as  distinctive,   as   important,   as   the   annual 

*  The  Governor  made  no  such  statement.  He  implied  this,  but  he  was 
mistaken.  G.   C.   S. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         407 

dinner  by  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  for  it  is  signifi- 
cant not  only  of  the  widening  of  woman's  sphere  but  also  indica- 
tive of  her  achievement. 

The  times  have  changed  and  we  have  changed  with  them,  and 
as  we  look  around  us  and  contemplate  this  distinguished  gathering, 
he  must  be  blind  indeed  who  does  not  see  evidence  of  the  triumph 
of  the  New  Idea  and  of  the  progress  of  civilization.  It  was  not 
so  long  ago  when  such  an  event  would  have  been  accounted  one  of 
the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  Less  than  a  hundred  years  ago 
the  legal  status  of  woman  was  as  insignificant  as  the  condition 
of  a  serf  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Not  only  did  the  law  deny  to 
woman  the  free  disposal  of  her  property  and  surround  her  person 
with  a  Chinese  wall  of  prejudices  and  restrictions,  but  she  was 
not  even  permitted  to  own  her  own  children.  What  a  married 
woman  earned  became  the  property  of  her  husband.  She  could 
neither  make  a  will  nor  enter  into  a  contract.  She  had  no  rights, 
no  privileges,  save  through  courtesy.  For  ages  woman  had  been 
excluded  from  the  professions.  Denied  almost  every  opportunity 
to  become  her  highest  self,  she  merely  existed.  One  by  one,  how- 
ever, these  various  disabilities,  these  rusty  fetters  of  legal  and 
economic  injustice,  forged  by  ingorance,  have  been  cast  away 
until  to-day  we  see  her  exalted  to  that  divine  equality  with  man 
which  was  the  evident  purpose  of  evolution.  The  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  has  never  been  more  successfully  demonstrated. 
Though  the  Society  of  Friends  had  long  before  proclaimed  their 
belief  in  spiritual  equality,  it  was,  I  believe,  Mary  Wollstonecraft 
who,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  first  began  the 
agitation  for  the  rights  of  women.  Since  then  there  have  been 
many  champions,  many  martyrs.  To  mention  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton  and  Anna  Dickinson  is  to  call  up  a  hundred  other  names. 
With  what  success  their  labors  and  their  lives  of  self-sacrifice 
have  been  crowned,  this  occasion  is  eloquent  evidence.  It  is  also 
a  splendid  tribute  to  the  fact  that  such  freedom  as  woman  has 
achieved  has  been  won  against  almost  overwhelming  opposition 
by  woman  herself.  Gradually  but  surely  she  has  widened  her 
sphere  and  extended  the  boundaries  of  her  influence  until  to-day 
she  is  man's  rival  and  competitor  in  almost  every  calling.  In 
1840  there  were  only  seven  occupations  open  to  women.  To-day 
she  is  distingfuished  in  four  hundred  distinct  lines  of  endeavor. 
No  longer  is  she  pitied  because  she  labors,  no  longer  does  she  eat 
the  bitter  bread  of  dependence.  She  not  only  holds  her  own,  but 
she  has  gained,  while  advancing,  the  esteem  and  the  admiration 
of  man.  She  has  added  a  dignity  to  labor;  she  has  transfigured 
life;  she  has  transformed  our  whole  civilization.  We  have  seen 
her  enter  the  learned  professions.  Law,  Medicine  and  Theology, 
and  she  has  proved  not  unworthy.  When  in  1850  Dr.  Hannah 
Longshore  opened  her  office  in  Philadelphia,  the  doctors,  much 
alarmed  by  this  strange  innovation,  mocked  at  her  attempt  and 


4o8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

opposed  her  with  petty  persecutions.  Even  the  druggists  refused 
to  fill  her  prescriptions.  To-day  over  10,000  women  are  practicing 
medicine  in  this  country  alone. 

Once,  and  that  was  not  so  long  ago,  either,  woman  was  thought 
altogether  incapable  of  high  thinking.  She  can  never,  it  was  said 
with  all  the  emphasis  of  masculine  arrogance,  compete  with  man  in 
the  severe  mental  discipline  of  the  college.  To-day  more  than 
20,000  young  women  are  enrolled  in  our  higher  institutions  of 
learning,  and  it  is  conceded,  no  longer  grudgingly,  that  they  have 
no  cause  to  be  ashamed.  Of  what  woman  has  accomplished  in 
authorship,  of  her  efforts  for  social  purity  and  the  amelioration 
of  suffering,  of  her  discoveries  in  science,  of  her  eloquence  and  of 
her  contributions  to  freedom,  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  speak. 

To  mention  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  George  Eliot,  Flor- 
ence Nightingale,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Clara  Barton,  Emma 
Willard,  Maria  Mitchell  and  Madame  Curie,  is  to  say  more  than 
volumes!  But  it  is  in  the  field  of  education  that  woman  has 
reaped  her  finest  laurels.  Of  the  public  school  teachers  to  whom 
the  State  confides  the  instruction  of  the  rising  generation  more 
than  half  are  women.  And  such  women!  You  have  only  to  look 
around  to  admire. 

Here  then  is  a  force,  an  irresistible  force  which,  as  it  can  no 
longer  be  opposed,  must  be  conciliated.  Ladies,  we  capitulate, 
I  bring  you  the  white  flag.  After  a  century  of  unceasing  agi- 
tation woman  has  at  last  lifted  herself  to  her  true  sphere.  She 
has  discovered  that  in  union  there  is  strength,  and  this  democ- 
racy of  her  mind,  this  confederation  of  her  sympathies,  this  con- 
centration of  her  powers  is,  I  am  persuaded,  about  to  become  the 
greatest  human  force  in  our  civilization.  She  has  exalted  her- 
self and  has  lifted  man  with  her.  She  is  the  very  heart  of  prog- 
ress. Surely  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  she  deserves  her 
successes,  and  that  wherever  she  labors  she  has  proved  worthy  of 
her  wage.  And  he  must  indeed  be  blind  to  truth  and  deaf  to 
every  tenderness  who,  gazing  on  tliis  brilliant  assemblage  of  fair 
women,  could  say  that  her  intellectual  triumphs  have  marred 
her  beauty  or  lessened  her  charm. 

BANQUET  1909 

Congressman  Sulzer:  "If  the  Governor  vetoes  your  bill  then 
next  year  I'll  run  for  Governor,  and  it  is  certain  that  I  won't 
veto  it." 

Hon.  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  Public  Printer :  "  Equal  Pay  has  ab- 
solutely nothing  to  do  with  supply  and  demand.  It  is  not  be- 
cause women  demand  the  same  salary  as  men  do  that  so  few  are 
employed  in  the  printing  business,  but  because  of  the  very  great 
use  of  machinery,  which  in  many  cases  demands  the  strength 
of  a  man. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         409 

"  Woman  is  by  nature  a  better  *  mother '  to  little  children  left 
in  her  care  during  the  greater  portion  of  the  day  than  men  are. 
Then  why  shouldn't  she  receive  the  same  salary?" 

Lewis  Nixon :  "  It  is  due  to  their  (women  teachers')  eflforts 
that  the  local  schools  have  had  such  rapid  development.  Pupils 
taught  by  women  have  a  much  better  understanding  of  human 
nature  than  have  men,  and  are  in  that  sense  much  better  adapted 
for  the  business  world." 

ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  AT  FOURTH  ANNUAL  DINNER, 
INTERBOROUGH  ASSOCIATION  OF  WOMEN  TEACH- 
ERS, CITY  OF  NEW  YORK,  SATURDAY,  APRIL  i6th, 
1910,  HELD  AT  WANAMAKER  BANQUET  HALL. 

Hon.  William  Sulzer:  Miss  Strachan,  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men: This  is  unexpected,  but  not  embarrassing.  I  knew  when 
I  came  here  I  would  be  asked  to  make  a  speech,  and  I  was  glad 
to  observe  I  was  down  at  the  end,  so  that  I  would  come  last;  but 
I  see  the  teachers  are  close  students  of  the  good  book,  and  be- 
lieve those  who  are  last  shall  be  first. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me  to  be  with  you  again  to-night. 
I  came  over  from  Washington  especially  to  be  here.  (Applause.) 
And  these  are  troublous  times  at  the  Capital.  If  the  House  is  in 
session,  and  there  should  be  a  call  of  the  House,  a  warrant  for 
my  arrest  has  been  issued  for  being  absent  without  leave;  and 
the  Speaker  has  the  right  to  take  away  my  pay.  (Laughter.) 
But  I  am  chancing  all  that  with  Uncle  Joe.  I  am  against  him  and 
I  am  with  the  teachers.     (Applause.) 

I  am  here  to-night  to  testify  again  to  what  I  have  frequently 
said  during  the  twenty  years  I  have  been  in  public  life — and  that 
is,  that  I  never  could  comprehend  why  any  man  who  was  a  law- 
maker, should  discriminate  so  far  as  justice  is  concerned,  between 
man  and  woman.     (Applause.) 

They  call  me  a  Democrat;  and  I  am  a  Democrat,  not  so  much 
in  the  political  sense,  as  many  people  believe,  but  I  am  a  Dem- 
ocrat in  the  generic  sense.  (Applause.)  I  believe  in  equal  and 
exact  justice  to  all.  (Applause.)  And  that  little  word  "all"  in- 
cludes all  sorts  and  all  conditions  of  men  and  women  (applause) 
here,  there  and  everywhere. 

My  sympathy  is  with  the  struggle  the  teachers  of  this  city  have 
been  making  for  years  for  justice,  for  equal  rights  and  for  equal 
pay,  (Applause.)  I  congratulate  the  teachers  upon  this  magnifi- 
cent assemblage,  and  the  success  of  this  great  banquet.  There 
are  within  the  confines  of  the  City  of  New  York,  many  great 
organizations,  but  I  undertake  to  say  there  is  no  other  organiza- 
tion in  the  City  of  New  York  that  could  bring  together  so  many 
distinguished,  brilliant  and  representative  people  as  the  Teachers' 
Association.     It  speaks  volumes  for  your  cause. 


4IO         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

I  looked  forward  ever  since  the  last  banquet,  a  year  ago,  to  this 
occasion,  to  be  with  you,  to  congratulate  you  that  your  struggle 
had  been  won ;  that  your  cause  had  triumphed ;  that  your  law 
had  been  put  upon  the  statute  book.  But  I  regret  to-night  to  learn 
that  no  further  advance  of  the  bill  has  been  made  during  all  the 
year.  And  someone  is  responsible  for  that.  I  hope  that  the 
brilliant  minds  of  the  men  here,  who  wield  the  facile  pen, — I  know 
they  do — will  see  to  it  that  when  the  next  year  rolls  around,  and 
another  banquet  is  given,  the  law  will  be  upon  the  statute  books. 
(Applause.)  That  is  the  way  you  men  of  the  press — that  is  the 
way  you  men  of  the  magazines — and  no  one  can  pay  the  writers 
on  the  magazines  a  greater  tribute  than  myself,  because  within 
three  years  they  have  worked  in  America  the  greatest  revolution 
of  modern  times — I  hope  you  will  turn  you  thoughts  and  your  at- 
tention to  the  struggle  of  these  women;  and  see  to  it  that  they 
get  their  rights,  that  they  get  justice.  And  for  justice  all  mag- 
azines should  be  a  temple,  and  for  justice  all  the  newspapers 
should  be  altars. 

Now,  my  friends,  just  a  word  more.  I  am  a  believer  in  the 
school ;  and  I  am  a  believer  in  school-teachers,  men  and  women. 
I  believe  that  the  mightiest  force  on  earth  is  the  little  red  school- 
house  on  the  hill ;  and  next  to  that — the  dominating  influence  of 
the  school — the  teacher  in  it.  No  one  knows  the  debt  the  Re- 
public of  America  owes  to  the  schools  and  to  the  teachers. 

God  bless  the  teachers  of  New  York  and  of  America.  (Ap- 
plause.) And  may  their  efforts  be  crowned  with  success;  and 
their  struggle  for  equal  rights,  and  for  equal  pay  for  equal  work 
be  won  in  the  coming  year.     (Applause.) 

Commissioner  Waldo:  Miss  Strachan,  Ladies  and  Gen- 
tlemen :  To  education  more  than  any  other  factor,  America  owes 
her  great  advance  in  civilization,  in  commerce  and  in  industry. 
The  training  of  the  mind  of  Young  America  is  a  profession  on 
which  the  future  of  the  Union  most  depends.  I  congratulate  you 
as  teachers  of  the  greatest  and  largest  school  system  in  the  world. 
I  believe  that  you  should  have  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  I  am 
a  strong  believer  in  adequate  compensation  for  public  school 
teachers,  who  devote  their  lives  to  the  education  of  our  future 
citizens.  On  the  school  teacher  devolves  the  task  of  instilling 
in  the  coming  generations  a  love  of  patriotism,  the  traditions  of 
our  country,   and  a  love  of  liberty. 

I  am  glad  to  be  here  to-night  with  you,  and  again  I  congratu- 
late you  upon  this  magnificent  dinner.     (Applause.) 

Commissioner  Arthur  S.  Somers:  A  year  ago  I  had 
not  taken  any  position,  as  far  as  the  question  was  concerned,  one 
way  or  the  other.  I  had  been  thinking  some,  however,  and  en- 
deavoring to  make  up  my  mind  as  to  what  was  the  proper  atti- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK        41! 

tude  for  one  who  was  engaged  in  public  work,  and  who  might 
have  to  deal  with  this  question  sooner  or  later.  I  recall  that 
during  all  this  time,  though  many  of  the  lady  teachers  believed 
that  I  was  not  their  friend,  inasmuch  as  I  had  failed  to  advocate 
their  cause,  that  I  found  one  of  the  most  charming  conditions  that 
a  man  can  possibly  realize ;  my  friends  among  the  women  teach- 
ers,— and  I  had  quite  a  number  I  am  proud  to  say — when  this 
question  arose,  never  for  a  single  instant  wavered  in  their  friend- 
ship for  me,  even  though  in  their  hearts  they  believed  I  was  not 
friendly  to  "Equal  Pay."  There  is  a  lady  here  to-night  (Miss 
Ennis)  who  called  at  my  house  on  school  business,  and  as  she 
was  going,  in  some  manner  or  other,  we  just  touched  on  the 
question  of  equal  pay ;  and  she  said  to  me :  "  The  one  thing  that 
has  pained  me  more  than  anything  else  is  the  fact  that  you  who 
have  been  one  of  my  oldest  and  best  friends,  is  not  on  our  side." 
And  I  simply  smiled, — but  her  words  set  me  thinking  somewhat 
harder,  and  after  having  weighed  the  question,  after  having  debated 
it,  after  having  met  all  the  arguments  against  it  that  I  could  raise 
within  myself,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  question  re- 
solved itself  down  to  a  matter  of  simple  justice.  And  when  I 
reached  that  conclusion,  I  felt  it  incumbent  upon  me,  as  one  of 
your  representatives,  as  a  representative  of  the  citizens  of  this 
city  in  the  Board  of  Education,  to  ask  the  Board  of  Education 
to  declare  itself  one  way  or  the  other  on  this  vital  issue;  and  if 
possible  to  give  color  to  the  efforts  of  the  women  teachers — to 
show  their  sympathy  for  the  efforts  being  made  by  these  teachers 
in  the  name  of  justice;  and  to  do  this  not  for  sentimental  reasons, 
but  simply  because  it  is  right. 

I  voice  these  few  personal  remarks  only  that  my  position  may 
be  clearly  understood;  that  all  may  know  that  when  I  introduced 
my  resolution  I  did  it  with  all  the  consciousness  of  the  justice 
of  the  position  that  I  felt  I  was  impelled  to  take.  I  have  absolutely 
no  apology  to  offer  to  anybody  for  my  act,  and  if  I  were  the  only 
man  in  the  great  city  to  stand  up  in  favor  of  that  resolution,  I 
would  be  willing  to  count  as  that  minority  of  one. 

My  best  wishes  go  with  you.  I  sincerely  trust  that  your  ef- 
forts within  a  short  time  will  be  fruitful  in  successful  results. 
The  cause  itself  must  win.  There  can't  be  any  doubt  about  that. 
(Applause.)  If  we  don't  settle  it;  if  this  Board  doesn't  settle  it, 
another  administration  will.  If  this  legislature  doesn't  settle  it, 
another  legislature  will.  Because  it  is  one  of  the  things  that  is 
bound  to  move  on ;  and  if  we  don't  get  on  the  band-wagon  and 
move  with  it,  it  will  go  on  without  us.  But  I  assure  you  I 
give  you  my  very  best  wishes,  and  I  sincerely  hope  and  trust  that 
no  effort  will  be  spared  to  keep  alive  this  vital  issue,  and  to  ed- 
ucate still  further,  as  you  have  been  doing  in  the  few  years  you 
have  been  engaged  in  this  work,  the  people  of  our  great  city  and 
our  great  State.     (Applause.) 


412         EQUAL  PAY  'FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Mrs.  Kate  Upson  Clark:  I  was  a  teacher  myself,  years 
ago;  so  when  I  say  "we"  I  count  myself  in  with  you.  And  we 
are  to-night  in  the  position  of  the  Irishman,  of  whom  you  all  have 
heard,  who,  when  he  drew  his  weekly  envelope  uttered  an  ejacula- 
tion of  pain  and  grief.  One  of  his  friends  nearby  said :  "  What  is 
the  matter,  Mike ;  didn't  you  get  as  much  as  you  were  expectin'  ?  " 
And  he  said,  "  I  am  working  for  the  stingiest  man  I  ever  worked 
for.  Yes,  I  got  as  much  as  I  was  expectin',  but  I  was  countin' 
on  gettin'  more  than  I  was  expectin'." 

My  friends,  we  were  counting  on  getting  more,  and  we  didn't 
get  it;  but,  as  the  speakers  before  me  have  said,  you  are  bound 
to  get  it. 

I  wonder  if  you  ever  considered  how  the  position  of  the  teacher 
to-day  is  different  from  what  it  was  in  the  beginning.  In  the 
olden  time,  the  middle  ages,  and  since  then,  the  position  of  the 
teacher  was  very  low.  You  remember  that  almost  all  great 
teachers  were  then  looked  down  upon.  Look  back  to  Quintilian, 
who  was  the  first  to  oppose  corporal  punishment;  and  you  re- 
member Socrates  was  put  to  death — and  Quintilian  was  killed 
too  because  of  his  teaching,  although  he  was  a  good  man  and  a 
good  teacher.  And  so  on  through  all  ages,  the  teachers  have  had 
hard  work,  and  they  have  not  been  respected  You  doubtless 
remember  that  passage  in  one  of  Scott's  novels,  where  it  is  said, 
"What  do  you  want  with  reading  and  writing?  Leave  that  to  the 
women  and  the  monks;  it  is  no  use  to  a  man;  all  he  wants  to 
know  is  how  to  control  a  hawk,  ride  his  horse  and  shoot  with 
a  bow."  That  was  all  the  man  prized  in  those  days,  and  if  he 
learned  to  read  he  was  ridiculed  for  it;  it  was  considered  a  silly 
thing  for  a  man  to  do. 

But  as  time  has  gone  on  the  position  of  teacher  has  become 
more  honorable,  and  teachers  have  been  paid  more  and  more; 
the  teachers  have  come  to  have  a  social  position,  and  a  business 
position,  and  from  the  present  outlook,  my  friends,  I  believe  in 
the  course  of  time  this  trouble  that  we  are  having  about  equal 
pay  will  disappear. 

Of  course  there  is  no  argument  whatever  against  equal  pay 
for  equal  work.  (Applause.)  It  comes  down  simply  to  a  question 
of  expediency.  Is  it  possible  to  do  it?  or  isn't  it  possible  to  do 
it?  You  know  in  the  olden  time  a  married  woman  had  to  go 
to  her  husband  if  she  wanted  money,  and  ask  for  it ;  or  steal 
it  out  of  his  trousers*  pocket.  (Laughter.)  And  she  would  be 
asked  "what  did  you  buy  with  that  last  quarter  I  gave  you." 
(Laughter.) 

Now  the  question  is  a  matter  of  money.  Are  we  worth  all 
this  money?  If  we  were  only  a  subway  we  could  get  millions. 
(Laughter.)  But  we  are  not  worth  as  much  money  as  parks, 
subways  and  sidewalks.  We  are  just  Women.  As  Miss  Strachan 
has   said,   we   buy   where    we   can   get   our   things    cheapest,    and 


EQUAL  'PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         413 

it  seems  to  be  good  policy  that  women  come  cheap.  We  are  poor, 
and  we  are  glad  to  get  almost  anything.  It  is  very  silly,  and  very 
poor  policy  in  us.  We  ought  to  get  our  prices  higher  and  per- 
haps we  could  enhance  our  value.  I  don't  blame  these  women 
who  are  going  into  business.  You  know  all  the  rich  people  are 
merchants.  Over  on  the  other  side  the  French  are  merchants. 
They  are  hard  headed,  and  keen  and  shrewd.  You  can't  fool  them ; 
you  can't  get  ahead  of  them.  And  I  tell  you  we  have  lots  of  head 
for  business — I  haven't  any — but  some  of  the  rest  have — and  I 
want  to  see  these  business  women  going  into  business ;  going  in 
with  nerve  and  going  in  to  win,  and  becoming  great  in  finance. 
and  making  these  men  sit  up  and  take  notice.  That  is  all  that  will 
make  them  look  up  to  us — to  make  a  lot  of  money.  And  I  be- 
lieve we  are  going  to  get  it;  and  then  women  won't  have  to  worry 
about  earning  their  own   living.      (Applause.) 

I  am  not  afraid  of  the  feminizing  of  the  schools.  There  has 
been  a  lot  of  talk  about  that.  The  men  who  are  talking  that 
way  don't  understand  us  women.  To  them  we  are  most  mj's- 
terious  things.  We  have  nearly  come  up  to  them  in  a  few 
years.  They  don't  understand  us.  They  don't  know  anything 
about  us;  we  are  mysteries.  But,  just  the  same  we  have 
the  same  feelings  as  they  have;  and  if  they  will  only  take  us  as 
they  do  themselves,  and  treat  us  as  they  do  another  fellow, 
they  will  find  we  are  all  right.     (Applause.) 

Somebody  in  defining  the  law  of  progress,  said  "  we  get  along 
by  having  the  old  hardshells  die  off."  Now,  my  friends,  we 
don't  want  anybody  to  die  before  his  time;  but  if  a  few  of  these 
people  opposing  this  bill  will  die  off,  we  will  get  it.    (Applause.) 

Hon.  James  A.  Foley: — In  the  public  press  about  a  month  ago, 
appeared  a  statement  of  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Board 
of  Education,  who  said  in  the  debate  on  the  resolution  of  Com- 
missioners, that  he  fixed  the  limit  of  efficiency,  intellectually  and 
physically,  of  the  women  teachers  of  this  city  at  five  years. 
As  I  glance  over  the  audience  to-night,  in  which  I  see  so  much 
evidence,  so  many  living  documents  refuting  that  statement,  I 
am  sure  that  that  gentleman  knows  very  little  about  educa- 
tional matters — far  less  than  he  knows  about  one  of  the  South- 
ern boroughs  of  the  city.     He  was  entirely  wrong. 

As  the  father  of  the  equal  pay  bill  last  year,  I  naturally  felt 
an  interest  in  it  this  year;  although  it  appears  to  have  been 
kidnapped  from  Albany  and  transferred  to  New  York  City, 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Board  of  Education.  I  have  been 
wondering  in  all  this  talk  of  investigation,  why  the  male 
teachers  have  not  demanded  an  investigation  of  the  popularity 
of  the  equal  pay  bill  in  the  Legislature  for  the  last  three  years. 
(Applause.)  We  have  heard  a  good  deal  about  bribes  in  Al- 
bany, of  the  thousands  that  are  supposed  to  be  in  certain  meas- 


4t4         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

ures  that  have  been  introduced  there;  but  let  me  tell  everybody 
here,  and  let  me  assure  the  members  of  any  male  teachers'  as- 
sociation, that  the  only  reason,  and  the  only  foundation  for  the 
success  and  popularity  of  the  equal  pay  bill  at  Albany,  was  the 
earnest  desire  on  the  part  of  legislators  to  correct  an  injustice 
that  had  been  done  to  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City, 
and  to  remedy  an  inconsistency  which  existed  in.  the  salary 
schedules  in  the  school  system  of  this  city. 

I  feel  that  the  women  teachers  of  this  city  are  the  most 
efficient  and  loyal  and  effective  servants  that  the  city  has.  We 
hear  a  good  deal  of  American  fair  play  and  the  protection  of 
its  laws — and  it  is  due  mainly  to  the  teachers  of  this  city  that 
the  principle  has  been  inculcated  in  American  manhood.  But 
if  the  treatment  the  women  teachers  have  been  receiving  from 
the  city  authorities  is  American  fair  play,  then  let  there  be 
reform  immediately  along  those  lines. 

The  Board  of  Education  seems  to  be  awakening  to  the  in- 
evitable; and  I  think  that  if  the  vote  for  equal  pay,  as  evi- 
denced in  the  March  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Education,  indi- 
cates anything,  it  indicates  that  the  increased  pay  for  the  women 
teachers  of  this  city,  and  the  broad  principle  of  equal  pay,  will 
soon  be  a  reality.     (Applause.) 

Hon.  Reuben  L.  Gledhill:— My  dear  Miss  Strachan  and  ladies 
and  gentlemen:  "  While  the  hour  is  late,  it  is  but  early  to  some 
of  the  nights  we  have  spent  fighting  for  your  cause.  (Ap- 
plause.) The  last  remembrance  I  have  is  of  being  on  the  firing 
line,  with  my  colleague.  Assemblyman  Smith,  at  something 
like  three  o'clock  of  a  Sunday  morning  in  the  Murray  Hill 
Hotel  battling  to  put  your  proposition  in  the  New  York  Char- 
ter; and  we  succeeded  in  doing  it.  (Applause.)  This  wasn't 
a  place  for  oratory  relative  to  your  bill.  We  were  alone;  and 
while  others  slept,  we  were  working  for  you.  We  expect  to 
win,  and  we  expect  you  to  win. 

Remember  this:  he  is  not  the  best  general  that  wins  the 
most  victories;  but  he  is  the  best  that  survives  defeat  after 
defeat  and  organizes  victory  at  the  end  from  the  experience 
of  those  defeats.     (Applause.) 

You  will  in  the  end,  I  think,  be  very  much  like  the  warriors 
that  Napoleon  lined  up  for  inspection.  One  of  the  inspectors 
said:  'These  must  have  been  heroic  men;  some  have  no  arms, 
others  are  without  limbs,  and  others  are  blind.  What  became 
of  the  men  that  inflicted  these  severe  injuries  on  these  noble 
warriors?'  And  the  French  general  touched  his  hat  and  said: 
*  They  are  all  dead,  sir.'     (Applause.) 

And  so  will  all  our  opponents  be  dead  when  we  have  finished 
with  them.       (Applause.) 


Hon.    George  S.    Davis, 

Fatheb  of  State-wide   "Equal  Pay  for   All  Civil  Service   Em- 
ployees,"  1909. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         415 

Hon.  Mirabeau  L.  Towns  : — Madam  President,  ladies  and  gentle- 
men; and  indomitable  Amazonians: 

I  believe  that  you  all  know  where  I  stand  on  this  question. 
It  will  be  unnecessary  here  to  elaborate  my  opinions  and  con- 
victions as  to  what  salary  a  woman  should  receive  for  doing 
the  same  work  that  a  man  is  called  upon  to  do.  What  I  wish 
to  speak  about  in  the  few  moments  I  shall  consume,  is,  first,  to 
give  you  my  congratulations  for  the  most  excellent  organiza- 
tion which  you  have  perfected  for  the  purpose  of  spreading 
this  propaganda  of  simple  justice.  The  aggregation  of  intel- 
ligence, and  beauty,  and  courage,  which  is  congregated  here 
to-night  to  attend  this  festival  cannot  be  matched  anywhere  in 
this  country;  and  that  means  anywhere  in  the  world.  History 
does  not  recall  an  assembly,  or  an  association  similar  to  that 
which  graces  this  occasion  to-night.  Where  would  you  find 
so  much  intelligence,  so  much  modesty,  so  much  true  female 
worth  and  beauty,  as  the  most  contracted  vision  would  have 
beheld  here  this  evening? 

This  question  of  equal  pay  is  one  which  the  mind  of  this 
community  is  not  exactly  prepared  to  receive;  and  it  is  one 
which  you  must  expect  to  have  slowly  inculcated  to  that  con- 
viction which  will  result  in  a  majority  which  permits  public 
opinion  siding  with  you.  Now,  you  can  only  do  that  by  organ- 
ization. Miss  Strachan  said  here  in  her  remarks,  that  on  the 
first  occasion  when  you  requested  an  audience  of  the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Education  to  listen  to  the  demands  of  the  school 
teachers  of  this  city,  only  two  attended.  Afterwards,  and  only 
after  the  very  short  campaign  in  which  the  Interborough  As- 
sociation transferred  its  base  of  operation  from  Albany,  and 
came  to  front  its  enemies  right  at  their  very  hearthstone,  after 
a  short  preparation — only  one  meeting  having  been  held  at 
Carnegie  Hall,  and  that  meeting  having  been  shunned  by  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  City  at  that  time,  after  he  had  given 
us  a  solemn  promise  to  appear — we  were  able  to  go  again  be- 
fore the  Board  of  Education  with  far  different  results.  Our 
only  regret  is  that  we  had  induced  the  Mayor  to  appoint  four 
women  upon  the  Board  in  the  expectation  that  they,  at  least, 
would  appreciate  the  seriousness  of  the  subject  which  con- 
cerned their  sisters.  We  found  that  three  of  them  were  not 
equal  to  the  occasion,  and  could  not  rise  to  the  emergency. 
From  some  influence  which  no  person  can  define,  they  cast 
their  votes  against  you,  still  it  is  recorded  that  sixteen  fearless 
members  of  the  Board  stood  up  for  right  and  justice,  and  had 
their  names  counted  in  favor  of  this  vital  question.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

If  that  was  defeat,  it  was  not  dishonorable.  I  cannot  recall 
any  great  public  question  involving  the  expenditure  of  millions 


4i6         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

of  dollars,  that  has  within  the  last  year  come  so  near  its  suc- 
cess as  this  question  of  equal  pay,  which  came  before  a  Board 
that  had  been  picked,  I  might  almost  say,  for  three  years,  ever 
since  you  began  your  agitation,  for  the  purpose  of  defeating 
this  very  question.  But  so  eloquent  had  been  your  argument 
and  so  just  was  your  cause,  that  some  of  these  very  members 
turned  at  the  vital  moment  in  your  favor,  and  but  for  the  de- 
sertion of  those  whom  you  naturally  counted  to  be  your  friends, 
you  would  have  had  a   settlement  of  this  question. 

Now,  I  notice  that  those  whom  you  seem  to  think  are  op- 
posing you,  and  who  have  the  power  to  give  you  this  success, 
are  so  afraid  of  the  gentle  influence,  the  persuasive  influence 
that  you  will  exert  over  them,  that  they  shun  and  avoid  you. 
For  they  know  that  if  they  come  within  the  circumference  and 
periphery  of  your  influence,  and  listen  to  your  plea  for  justice, 
simple  justice,  and  equality,  they  will  be  convinced. 

And  as  it  is  to  some  extent  a  political  question,  and  as  our 
afifairs  are  presided  over  by  politicians,  and  as  it  is  not  exactly 
settled  whether  the  majority  of  public  opinion  is  on  your  side 
or  not,  and  as  it  involves  an  expenditure  of  some  millions  of 
dollars  which  must  be  raised  by  taxation,  these  people,  al- 
though convinced  of  the  justice  of  your  cause,  are  afraid  to 
advocate  it  at  this  moment.  Therefore,  I  say  to  you,  as  you 
have  not  the  power  of  suffrage,  as  you  have  only  the  power  of 
organization,  and  as  you  have  perfected  an  organization  that 
is  not  afraid  to  maintain  your  rights  in  good  or  evil  report,  that 
you  still  further  perfect  that  organization.  Only  in  work — in- 
domitable and  unwearying  work — can  you  achieve  success. 

I  believe  that  the  next  time  the  votes  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation are  counted,  if  you  will  keep  on  working  as  I  have  sug- 
gested, and  keep  the  propaganda  before  the  people,  and  spread 
the  light,  that  the  majority  will  be  just  as  great  on  the  other 
side   as  it  was  against  you  at  the  last  vote.     (Applause.) 

Everybody  is  agreed  that  there  is  something  in  the  gentler 
sex  which  peculiarly  fits  it  to  instil  instruction  into  the  infant 
or  unformed  mind;  to  awaken  in  the  children  the  noblest  senti- 
ments, to  inspire  them  on  the  road  which  ambition  selects;  to 
give  them  gentle  character;  to  give  them  respect;  all  of  which 
go  to  make  up  good  citizenship.  From  time  immemorial,  from 
the  time  of  Moses, — our  friend  here  stated  a  few  examples, 
many  more  might  be  stated — the  gentle,  influence  of  woman's 
mind  and  woman's  hope  and  woman's  unselfish,  undying  work 
has  produced  the  greatest  products  in  efficient  and  useful  men 
— men  whose  lives  have  made  mile-posts  on  the  road  of  human 
progress.  And  nowhere  is  that  influence  on  character  en- 
countered with  such  convincing  force  as  in  America — as  seen 
in  the  history  of  our  progress,  our  wealth,  our  prosperity,  and 
our  almost  unlimited  power.     So  that,  although  our  opponents 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         417 

in  the  Board  of  Education  may  say  in  their  fear,  and  in  their 
grasping  for  feeble  arguments,  that  men  are  more  efficient  in 
instructing  the  youthful  man,  they  are  refuted  by  thousands  of 
instances  in  history;  refuted  by  the  very  facts  which  form  the 
foundation  of  the  progress,  of  the  development  and  wealth  of 
this  country. 

So  those  arguments  will  be  finished  in  this  way,  and  there 
will  be  nothing  left  but  the  miserly  argument  that  it  will  in- 
crease the  budget.  Now,  that  amounts  to  nothing,  because, 
ladies,  I  say  that  you  are  the  budget,  that  you  train  the  citizen, 
that  you  take  these  rough  masses  of  humanity  that  come  from 
foreign  shores  without  any  ethical  development,  that  you  take 
them  and  give  them  ideas  of  morality,  that  you  develop  their 
minds,  that  you  make  of  them  the  citizens  of  the  future,  that 
you  give  to  them  that  power  to  discriminate  in  their  citizenship 
which  makes  for  their  happiness,  their  virtue,  and  their  man- 
hood. It  is  to  you  women  teachers  of  this  community  and 
other  communities,  but  mostly  of  this  community — this  door- 
way of  foreign  immigration — to  whom  these  young  people  come 
whose  minds  have,  I  might  say,  lain  fallow  for  generations. 
They  come  here  oppressed  by  poverty,  to  find  the  doors  of 
education  open  to  them.  They  go  home  at  night  and  see  the 
squalor  and  poverty  of  their  parents;  and  next  morning  they 
go  into  our  palatial  schools  and  come  within  the  influence  of 
refined  and  cultivated  women;  and  are  inspired  to  nobler  en- 
deavors. And  if  there  is  one  spark  of  manhood  in  them,  if 
they  have  any  of  the  attributes  of  the  Creator,  it  is  you  who 
form  and  mold  them  into  the  perfection  of  action. 

So,  as  I  said  before,  you  can  count  absolutely  on  your  suc- 
cess. Keep  up  your  organization.  Present  boldly  your  ideas 
before  Mayor  Gaynor,  as  you  did  before  Mayor  McClellan,  and 
if  he  shuns  you  for  fear  of  the  gentle  influence  and  convincing 
propositions  that  you  place  before  him,  see  that  he  does  not 
escape  you,  even  though  he  take  refuge  with  Mr.  Frey,  the  rat- 
catcher. (Laughter.)  Because  this  is  only  one  of  the  great 
questions  that  confront  us,  and  as  the  reverend  gentleman  very 
properly  said,  in  its  achievement  and  in  the  action  that  you  take 
for  its  achievement,  perhaps  greater  things  will  come  than  the 
mere  sanction  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  Woman  will  go  up 
one  step  higher  in  power  and  in  the  respect  of  her  fellow-men 
and  sisters,  and  that,  I  say,  is  a  thing  for  which  we  may  de- 
voutly wish.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  Daniel  Frisbie,  Democratic  Leader  of  Assembly: — It  will 
give  me  great  pleasure  to  aid  you  in  achieving  what  undoubtedly 
is  your  right,  and  is  a  measure  of  justice  too.  No  citizen  of 
this  country  of  ours,  and  least  of  all  a  legislator  or  a  states^ 
man,  can  be  insensible  to  the  splendid  service  which  the  teacb« 


4i8         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

ers  of  our  country  have  rendered  through  all  its  long  and 
glorious  history.  Three  great  influences  are  building  up  the 
framework  of  the  character  of  our  American  citizen.  The 
church,  naturally  and  properly  first;  the  school,  and  the  press. 
I  am  proud  to  belong  to  the  latter,  and  I  believe  that  we  are 
doing  something  each  day  to  aid  in  the  cause.  But  no  one  can 
be  insensible  of  the  powerful  influence  which  you  exert, — an 
influence  which  affects  not  only  the  individual  student  as  you 
train  and  develop  his  powers  of  reason,  his  faculties,  his  grasp 
of  those  principles  which  underlie  the  success  of  every  young 
man;  but,  my  friends,  there  is  more  to  it  than  the  benefit  of 
the  inspiration  which  you  give  to  the  individual.  The  founders 
of  our  government,  realizing  that  its  success  through  all  time 
must  rest  upon  the  intelligence,  ability  andintegrity  of  its 
citizens,  wisely  provided  for  our  school  system.  And  from  that 
day  until  this,  they  have  liberally  and  generously  supported  it. 
In  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  a  proposition  for 
schools  elicits  no  objection  from  any  man.  The  more  liberal 
they  are,  the  more  fully  we  feel  we  are  doing  our  duty  to  our 
State.  And  now,  my  friends,  if  that  be  true,  it  must  equally 
be  true  that  those  who  have  in  charge  the  youth  of  our  State, 
are  entitled  to  the  greatest  consideration,  and  our  high  respect 
and   esteem. 

I  think  there  is  no  American  who  does  not  look  with  pride 
upon  the  past  history  of  his  country.  Certainly  we  in  the 
great  City  of  New  York,  and  in  the  State  of  New  York,  have 
reason  to  feel  proud  of  our  accomplishments  during  the  past 
century.  But,  my  friends,  much  as  we  have  advanced  in  com- 
merce, in  manufactures,  in  the  building  up  of  a  city  which  is 
fast  becoming  the  great  financial  center  of  the  world;  in  the 
endowment  of  our  libraries,  of  our  art  galleries,  in  the  advance- 
ment of  science,  and  education;  there  is  one  acme  of  greatness 
which  we  are  yet  to  achieve.  I  believe  that  we  are  to  develop 
here  and  that  it  will  be  our  greatest  test  of  greatness,  the  typi- 
cal ideal  citizen.  The  citizen  who  will  have  as  his  inspiration 
the  elevation  of  womanhood;  and  the  realization  of  the  father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  And  in  that  de- 
velopment, in  that  glorious  elevation  of  our  state,  no  one  will 
render  greater  influence  toward  that  desired  result  than  the 
women  teachers  of  the  City  and  State  of  New  York.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Hon.  Timothy  Healy: — Ladies  and  gentlemen:  You  certainly 
have  my  sympathy,  for  fair  play  and  justice.  I  have  been  fight- 
ing for  twenty-five  years  for  that  principle;  and  I  want  to  see 
the  teachers  of  this  city  get  a  fair  deal;  which  they  are  not 
getting.  I  know  probably  more  of  the  situation,  not  here  alone, 
but   in   Chicago — where   a   namesake,   Margaret   Healy,    is    doing 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         419 

sterling  work — and  in  other  cities,  than  you.  And  you  ladiea 
are  to  be  congratulated  on  the  splendid  organization  that  you 
have. 

I  am  in  favor  of  equal  pay,  and  better  pay,  all  around.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  will  go  further  and  say  that  I  am  in  favor  of  votes 
for  women.  (Applause.)  If  you  had  a  vote,  and  the  privilege 
of  the  ballot,  you  have  the  organization,  and  you  would  make 
some  of  our  political  friends  sit  up  and  take  notice.    (Applause.) 

I  am  glad  that  some  of  our  legislators  are  coming  around  to 
our  way  of  thinking;  and  I  think  we  will  have  more  of  them 
coming  around.  You  have  even  members  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation here  to-night.  Well,  I  don't  care  to  say  anything  about 
the  Board  of  Education,  but  I  have  my  own  opinion  of  them, 
and  the  least  said  about  them,  the  better.  (Laughter.)  I  have 
another  cause  of  my  own  with  the  gentlemen,  and  have  had  for 
a  long  time — the  janitors.  You  know  something  about  the 
janitor  system;  which  is  a  disgrace  to  the  City  of  New  York 
and  to  the  Board  of  Education;  and  political  influence  is  re- 
sponsible for  that  situation. 

Then  why  do  they  question  about  giving  you  a  few  more  mil- 
lions of  dollars  for  equal  pay?  We  have  had  administrations 
in  the  past  in  this  city,  that  would  steal  that  amount  in  a  few 
months.  (Laughter.)  There  is  no  getting  away  from  that. 
I  am  telling  you  what  I  have  said  from  a  truck  in  this  city,  and 
I  will  say  it  again. 

Now,  my  friends,  I  represent  a  labor  organization.  I  am 
president  of  the  International  Brotherhood  of  State  Firemen, 
and  also  delegate  of  the  Central  Federation  of  this   State. 

If  the  labor  organizations  have  their  say,  you  can  bet  your 
last  dollar  that  you  would  have  them  with  you,  ninety  per 
cent 

My  friends,  there  is  too  little  consideration  given  to  women 
in  this  country.  I  know  there  is  a  prejudice  against  women 
entering  the  industrial  field;  I  myself  feel  that  way  to  a  cer- 
tain extent.  But  there  are  other  fields,  other  lines  of  business, 
where  they  are  a  necessity,  where  they  should  be  in  the  great 
majority.  And  if  it  is  true,  as  one  of  your  speakers  has  said 
to-night,  that  the  best  of  them  are  not  going  into  teaching,  I 
don't  blame  them.  It  is  a  sad  state  of  affairs,  because  the  chil- 
dren— mj'  children  and  every  other  man's  children — should  have 
the  best,  and  the  best  is  none  too  good  for  the  future  American 
citizens.  (Applause.)  I  have  five  children  attending  school, 
and  they  are  taught  by  women.  I  want  them  to  be  taught  by 
women.  These  women  I  depend  on  for  the  molding  of  the 
young  minds  and  character  of  my  children — of  all  children  in 
our  public  schools;  and  the  women  who  do  this  work  are  en- 
titled to  a  great  deal  more  than  they  are  getting  now.  It  was 
said  here  a  few  moments  ago  that  hod  carriers  got  two  dollars 


420         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

a  day.  Why,  my  friends,  a  hod  carrier  in  this  city  gets  $3.40. 
(Laughter.) 

Only  last  night  I  learned  of  a  girl  who  came  home  last  week 
and  threw  her  pay  envelope  down  and  it  showed  she  drew 
twenty-five  dollars  for  her  week's  work  in  a  mill.  I  asked,  "  Do 
they  make  that  much?"  and  she  said,  "  They  don't  like  to  have 
us  make  $25  a  week,  but  we  get  on  an  average  $21  to  $23." 
Now,  this  girl  probably  spent  a  few  months  in  learning  to  be- 
come a  weaver,  and  these  teachers  have  to  devote  years  to 
preparing  themselves  for  their  work;  and  then  what  do  they 
get  for  it?  There  is  no  encouragement,  and  I  don't  wonder 
that  the  clever  young  women  refuse  to  go  in  and  work  for  the 
Board  of  Education.  There  is  not  a  woman  teaching  in  New 
York,  that  if  she  turned  her  attention  in  other  directions,  would 
not  earn  more  money,  and  get  along  better. 

I  would  like  to  make  a  good  talk  to  you,  but  it  is  late.  You 
may  depend  on  it,  when  you  go  to  Albany,  or  anywhere  else 
where  we  can  help  you,  we  will  be  with  you,  and  you  will  have 
our  sympathy  and  support,  and  may  God  speed  your  success. 
(Applause.) 

Hon.  Alfred  E.  Smith: — Miss  Strachan,  ladies  and  gentlemen: 
At  this  late  hour,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  make  a  speech.  I 
feel  like  one  of  the  Committee  on  "  Equal  Pay,"  and  I  think 
I  ought  to  report  as  to  what  has  happened  and  what  has  not 
happened  since  our  last  dinner.  Unfortunately  we  have  gotten 
into  a  situation  where  we  have  not  been  able  to  do  anything 
for  about  four  or  five  months.  I  think  it  will  be  remedied 
before  long.  We  got  into  that  position  on  this  account:  The 
well  known  and  well  defined  policy  of  the  Governor  with  re- 
gard to  the  right  of  localities  to  fix  salaries,  has  been  the  prin- 
cipal stumbling  block.  In  other  words,  in  the  proposed  char- 
ter, the  Governor  wants  eliminated  from  the  Charter  all  ref- 
erence to  salary.  That  applies  to  the  police  and  fire  depart- 
ments, and  the  school  teachers.  He  wants  the  locality  of 
Greater  New  York,  as  he  does  all  other  localities  of  this  kind 
in  the  State  left  with  entirely  free  hands  to  fix  the  salary  of 
every  person  that  draws  money  from  the  public  treasury.  That, 
of  course,  necessitates  the  repeal  of  the  I>avis  bill.  And  the 
more  I  hear  about  the  question  of  equal  pay,  the  more  I  am 
convinced  that  the  Davis  act  should  be  repealed.  (Applause.) 
I  think  that  this  infernal  situation  that  we  are  up  against  to- 
day, came  about  in  connection  with  the  Davis  law,  and  that  it 
should  never  have  gone  on  the  statute  books,  because  it  pro- 
vided for  this  inequality,  this  injustice  we  are  fighting,  and 
waging  this  battle  against  to-day.  (Applause.)  Now,  as  to  the 
arguments  against  our  proposition,  there  are  really  none.  Two 
classes  of  men  we  have  to  contend  with.     Only  last  Tuesday 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         421 

I  looked  over  across  the  table  in  Albany  to.  my  friend  Foley; 
I  lit  a  cigar  and  fell  back  in  the  chair;  we  were  having  it  all 
over  again.  For  the  fortieth  time  I  heard  the  arguments  of 
the  male  school  teachers.  Their  opposition  to  the  proposition 
is  a  very  simple  one.  It  is  entirely  selfish.  But  it  can  be  un- 
derstood in  a  few  minutes.  They  do  not  want  the  cost  of 
education  in  this  city  to  get  so  large  that  it  may  prevent  them 
from  getting  more  pay  at  some  future  time.     (Applause.) 

There  is  another  fellow  that  comes  along  to  help  him  out. 
That  is  the  man  that  is  making  the  real  trouble  for  us.  He  is 
the  man  that  is  what  you  call  a  professional  kicker  against 
everything.  He  is  president  of  some  taxpayers'  association 
some  place,  and  he  represents  a  large  body  of  citizens  that  buy 
a  house  at  $5  down  and  $1.25  a  week;  and  until  paid  for,  he  is 
against  everything,  unless  it  is  some  immediate  improvement 
on  the  block  where  his  house  stands,  the  expense  of  which  is 
to  be  borne  by  the  city  at  large.     (Applause.) 

Now,  to-night  I  see  the  thing  in  a  better  light  than  I  saw  it 
this  time  a  year  ago.  H  the  charter  is  enacted  into  law,  there 
is  no  doubt  about  the  repeal  of  the  Davis  bill,  and  it  will  not 
be  enacted  into  law  unless  it  contains  the  simple  little  pro- 
vision that  Senator  Gledhill  told  you  about — the  night  it  took 
us  until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  have  it  put  into  the 
charter.  It  doesn't  say  equal  pay;  but  it  says  that  the  Board 
of  Estimate  and  Apportionment,  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  shall  fix  the  salaries,  and  in  no  instance 
shall  that  salary  differ  because  of  the  sex  of  the  incumbent. 
(Applause.) 

I  see  the  thing  in  a  brighter  light  to-night,  for  another  reason. 
I  have  the  greatest  confidence  in  the  present  Mayor  of  the 
City  of  New  York.  (Applause.)  I  believe  he  has  taken  hold 
of  the  affairs  of  this  great  city  in  a  way  that  has  instantly  made 
him  a  national  figure.  (Applause.)  And  I  do  not  think  he  can 
possibly  be  consistent  with  that  record  so  far  accomplished,  if 
he  allows  his  term  of  ofiice  to  expire  without  giving  some 
attention  to  this  great  question  that  has  agitated  the  State  for 
four  years  back.  (Applause.)  And  I  think,  I  feel,  I  hope,  that 
when  we  meet  again,  one  year  from  now,  we  will  not  be  re- 
porting upon  the  question;  but  we  will  be  congratulating  each 
other  upon  its  accomplishment.     (Applause.) 

Hon.  Theodore  Sutro: — Of  course  there  is  an  enormous  amount 
that  might  be  said  on  this  subject.  I  agree  with  Grady  and 
the  other  speakers  that  have  addressed  you  this  evening.  The 
bare  annunciation  of  the  proposition  seems  to  prove  itself: 
"  Equal  pay  for  equal  work."  Why,  how  can  any  argument  be 
used  for  that?  Suppose  you  put  it  the  other  way:  Unequal 
pay  for  equal  work.     Isn't  that  an  absurdity  on  its  face?    The 


422         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

principles  of  political  economy  have  been  invoked  by  the  learned 
Commission  appointed  by  Mayor  McClellan  in  his  dying  hours 
(laughter)    of   supply  and   demand. 

Now  they  say  the  women  teachers  are  crowding  out  the  men. 
I  do  not  imagine  that  the  school  board  would  like  to  have  this 
reflection  cast  upon  them;  that  they  seek  inferior  instruction 
because  it  is  cheaper;  that  they  seek  women  because  they  work 
for  less,  which  naturally  presupposes  inferior  work,  in  the  most 
important  work  that  the  community  can  be  engaged  in,  the 
rearing  and  educating  of  her  future  citizens.  Besides,  the  old 
maxim,  the  old  doctrine  of  Adam  Smith  in  his  "Wealth  of 
Nations,"  which  he  enunciated  150  years  ago,  has  been  ex- 
ploded as  false.  It  may  be  applied  to  sugar  and  dry  goods, 
perhaps,  but  not  to  human  beings.  That  the  labor  market  is 
entirely  regulated  by  supply  and  demand,  I  have  no  time  to  go 
into. 

Then  there  is  the  talk  about  saving  so  many  millions  to  the 
city.  I  say  to  you  ladies,  whether  it  costs  a  million  or  twenty 
millions  more  to  back  up  your  efforts  in  trying  to  uphold  our 
Republic,  the  price  is  cheap,  but  I  haven't  time  to  go  into  that 
subject  either.     (Applause.) 

The  subject  I  do  want  to  say  a  word  or  two  about  is  the 
absurd  proposition,  that  of  the  "living  wage,"  especially  of  the 
"family  wage."  Now,  what  does  that  mean?  Is  the  State  a 
charitable  organization.  (Applause.)  Has  the  State  a  right  to 
use  our  money  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  a  family?  If 
that  is  true,  then  is  it  right  for  the  State  to  do  its  work  im- 
properly? If  it  is  going  to  support  the  family,  it  ought  to  sup- 
port the  whole  family,  not  a  part  of  it.  Therefore  the  salary 
of  the  male  teacher  ought  to  be  gauged  by  the  size  of  the 
family,  and  each  one  ought  to  get  a  different  salary.  If  a  man 
has  twelve  children,  he  certainly  ought  to  have  more  pay  than 
a  man  who  has  but  two,  even  though  both  men  be  in  the  same 
grade,  and  are  of  the  same  efficiency.     (Applause.) 

I  read  a  communication  in  the  "  Evening  Post,"  in  which  a 
learned  gentleman  says,  that  the  family  wage  is  so  important 
that  even  a  young  man,  though  he  is  not  married,  ought  to  re- 
ceive the  family  wage,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  marry.  Now, 
what  is  that  for  a  proposition?  (Laughter.)  I  understand  the 
women  teachers  are  not  permitted  to  marry.  Therefore  the 
State  penalizes  marriage,  by  prohibiting  their  marriage,  and  it 
sets  a  premium  against  marriage  by  giving  the  young  unmar- 
ried man  the  same  as  the  married  man.  (Applause.)  I  claim, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  if  that  proposition  is  carried  to  its 
last  analysis,  the  salary  of  each  individual  teacher  ought  to 
vary  from  time  to  time.  When  the  first-born  appears,  it  should 
be  so-and-so  much,  and  when  the  next  one  comes,  there  should 
be  so  much  increase,  and  where  there  are  twelve,  it  should  be 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         423 

twelve  times  as  much.  If  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  State  to  give 
a  family  wage,  each  member  of  the  family  ought  to  be  sup- 
ported, and  not  merely  a  part  of  it. 

Now,  that  of  itself  is  a  barren  argument.  Still,  it  is  the 
most  frequently  used  argument  I  have  heard  in  connection  with 
this  question. 

The  proposition  which  is  advanced  in  that  direction  reminds 
me  of  a  story — and  it  is  a  true  story — of  a  millionaire  physi- 
cian in  this  city,  who  married  the  daughter  of  a  multi-million- 
aire. When  the  first-bom  appeared  in  the  house,  the  grand- 
father was  so  elated  that  he  sent  his  daughter  a  check  for  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  he  promised  to  repeat  that  with  every 
new-comer.  I  don't  know  whether  I  ought  to  continue  the 
story  in  this  presence,  but  it  is  a  fact — I  knew  the  gentleman — 
he  had  the  largest  number  of  children  in  a  short  time  of  any 
man  that  ever  I  heard  of.  And  the  result  of  that  generosity 
on  the  part  of  the  grandfather  was,  that  this  eminent  surgeon 
celebrated  so  constantly  and  so  hilariously  the  frequent  ar- 
rivals of  fifty  thousand  dollar  checks,  that  he  finally  drank 
himself  to  death.     (Laughter.) 

Let  that  be  a  warning  to  the  school  board  of  what  their 
proposition  of  unequal  pay,  what  they  mean  by  family  wage, 
will  result  in.  Let  it  also  be  a  warning,  and  even  a  greater 
warning,  to  the  male  teachers  themselves,  as  to  what  a  future 
awaits  them  if  their  salary  is  kept  on  the  family  wage  basis. 

As  to  the  question  of  cost,  it  would  be  far  better  if  the  city 
were  to  pay  these  teachers  better  and  not  build  such  expensive 
and  luxurious  school-houses.  They  could  then  pay  the  women 
teachers  at  least  the  same  wages  that  are  paid  to  the  hod- 
carriers  and  other  laborers  that  work  on  the  buildings;  and 
this  they  are  not  receiving  to-day,  because  a  hod-carrier,  as 
I  gather  it  from  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
receives  $2  a  day.  As  far  as  I  have  looked  into  the  question, 
the  average  pay  of  the  woman  teacher  in  the  United  States  is 
only  $1.50  a  day,  which  is  the  pay  of  the  ordinary  laborer. 

The  best  place  is  to  look  always  for  an  object  lesson  in  these 
matters,  and  now,  there  is  one  district  in  this  country,  and  it  is 
a  district  where  the  proposition  of  equal  pay  has  been  suc- 
cessfully carried  on.  That  is,  the  District  of  Columbia,  where 
there  is  no  distinction  between  the  pay  of  men  and  women; 
where  the  question  of  unequal  pay  does  not  arise;  where  the 
teachers  are  sleeted  as  men  or  women  are  needed;  and  not  from 
any  motives  of  economy;  and  I  hope  that  the  system  will  con- 
tinue there  for  all  time  to  come.  Now,  I  want  to  say  in  closing, 
this:  that  most  maxims  are  false;  they  really  are;  they  gen- 
erally state  an  untruth.  Now,  I  don't.  The  statement  that 
"  might  makes  right "  is,  in  my  opinion,  absolutely  absurd  I 
think  quite  the  converse  is  true.     I  have  never  yet  found  that 


424         EQUAL   PAY.   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

right  didn't  make  might  in  the  end.     And,  ladies,  the  right  is 

on  your  side,  and  the  might  will  come  into  your  hands  event- 
ually, and  the  victory  will  be  yours.     (Applause.) 

Mr.  Siosson: — Instead  of  making  a  speech,  I  simply  want  to 
assure  you  of  my  great  pleasure  at  being  here  with  you,  and 
my  very  great  surprise  that  I  am  permitted  to  be  here  to  eat 
this  dinner  with  you.  Because  I  know  something  already  of 
the  customs  of  these  coast  people,  and  I  know  it  is  not  custom- 
ary for  the  two  sexes  to  dine  together.  I  was  very  much 
afraid  when  I  was  invited,  that  I  should  find  that  this  was  one 
of  those  banquet  halls  where  they  have  a  gallery,  andj  that  the 
men  would  be  put  up  in  the  gallery,  where  we  would  simply 
have  to  watch  the  ladies  eat,  listen  to  their  speeches,  and  with 
our  bright  eyes,  rain  influence  down  upon  them.  (Laughter.) 
This  is  one  of  the  most  peculiar  customs  I  have  encountered 
here.  You  know  that  we  of  the  interior  tribes  do  not  have  this 
custom.  In  the  hills,  men  and  women  associate  together  very 
frequently  and  very  commonly.  In  Wyoming,  where  I  came 
from,  mea  and  women  are  fond  of  being  together  (laughter). 
They  like  each  other.  They  quite  commonly  go  so  far  as  to 
marry.  (Laughter.)  They  marry  much  more  commonly  there 
than  among  the  coast  tribes  (laughter).  They  go  to  the  same 
schools;  they  go  to  church  together,  and  they  use  the  same 
books;  they  talk  the  same  language,  and  understand  each  other, 
to  a  certain  extent.  They  share,  indeed,  a  common  life;  not 
segregated  as  here.  They  even  go  to  the  polls  together.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

We  have,  as  a  consequence,  of  course,  no  such  question  as 
that  which  agitates  the  people  of  New  York,  in  regard  to  un- 
equal pay  for  equal  work.  (Applause.)  Equal  pay  for  equal 
work  is  simply  a  corollary  of  equal  suffrage.     (Applause.) 

I  simply  want  to  call  your  attention  to  one  fact  in  physical 
geography  which  I  have  not  seen  in  the  text  books.  That  is, 
the  fact  that  men  and  women  get  further  apart  as  one  travels 
eastward.  It  is  just  as  if  one  started  at  the  pole,  and  the  lines 
of  longitude  gradually  separated  as  they  went  towards  the 
equator.  At  least  they  say  they  do  that  way;  I  have  never 
tried  it.  But  I  know  that  the  other  is  true,  because  through 
coming  from  the  west  towards  the  east,  in  New  York  I  found 
a  definite  line  of  demarcation  between  men  and  women.  The 
women  teachers  eat  by  themselves;  and  the  men  teachers,  if 
they  have  a  disposition  to  eat,  eat  by  themselves.  (Laughter.) 
There  is  quite  a  difference,  as  I  said,  here,  and  suppose  you 
go  further  and  cross  the  sea.  Suppose  you  go  to  France;  there 
the  men  and  women  practically  belong  to  a  different  race,  from 
different  training  and  education.  The  man  may  have  been  very 
liberal  in  his  ideas,  and  his  wife  has  been  differently  trained; 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         425 

one  may  perhaps  be  an  atheist,  and  the  other  may  perhaps  be 
a  bigamist  (Laughter.)  At  any  rate,  they  have  learned  a  dif- 
ferent style  of  thinking,  so  a  man  is  not  on  speaking  terms  with 
his  wife,  however  much  they  may  love  each  other.  One  has 
been  enjoying  freedom  of  the  world,  while  perhaps  the  other 
has  been  immured  in  a  convent  school.  If  we  go  still  further, 
say  we  go  to  Turkey,  we  find  the  women,  creatures  of  the 
harem  and  we  find  the  men,  brutes.  Suppose  we  go  still  fur- 
ther, and  we  visit  New  Caledonia,  there  the  difference  is  greater 
still,  for  the  woman  is  a  slave,  and  the  man  a  brute.  It  is 
simply  a  matter  of  longitude.  In  New  Caledonia,  it  is  consid- 
ered improper  for  a  brother  and  a  sister  to  eat  together;  in 
New  York  it  is  considered  improper  for  a  brother  and  a  sister 
to  go  to  school  together.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  longitude. 
You  have  even  in  this  town  separate  books  of  instruction;  you 
have  a  school  where  masculine  geography  is  taught,  and  a 
school   where  feminine  geography  is   taught. 

I  hear  there  is  some  talk  about  changing  the  name  of  Nor- 
mal College.  It  seems  to  me  in  some  way  it  would  be  a  bad 
change,  because  that  name  means  so  much.  It  has  such  a 
value  for  its  historical  interest  because  the  training  of  what 
we  call  the  normal  woman  was  by  our  ancestors  considered  to 
be  abnormal.  They  considered  it  was  undesirable  for  woman 
to  learn  Latin  and  Greek;  that  it  was  impossible,  because  of 
her  limited  intellect,  that  she  should  learn  mathematics.  They 
considered  it  improper  for  her  to  learn  physiology;  they  con- 
sidered it  useless  for  her  to  learn  political  economy.  But  in 
these  later  days,  those  things  have  become  so  commonly  recog- 
nized as  part  of  women's  education,  that  the  place  where  they 
were  imparted  was  very  appropriately  named  "  Normal  Col- 
lege."    (Applause.) 

Rev.  Maurice  Harris: — I  come  from  a  people  who  have  always 
placed  the  teacher  in  a  very  high  rank.  In  fact,  one  of  the 
adages  of  our  sages  runs:  "He  who  honors  his  teacher,  hon- 
ors God." 

Ladies,  you  are  teachers,  but  in  another  sense  than  in  the 
school-room,  you  are  carrying  on  a  campaign  of  education. 
You  will  find  out,  ladies,  that  the  best  way  of  reaching  the 
truth  of  a  great  project,  or  cause,  is  to  establish  its  relation- 
ship to  other  causes.  Very  few  causes  stand  isolated  and  alone. 
They  are  each  a  part  of  larger  truths.  In  the  effort  you  are 
making,  it  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  the  equal  pay  of  teachers; 
it  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  equal  pay  between  men  and  women 
in  other  walks  of  life,  it  is  not  only  an  economic  question;  it 
is  a  social  one.  Not  socialistic,  but  sociological.  And  when 
you  are  fighting  for  this  equality  of  pay,  it  is  part  of  a  larger 
effort  for  equality,  for  which   woman  has  been  fighting  from 


426        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

the  beginning.  It  is  a  chapter  in  the  story  of  your  emancipa- 
tion, that  began  in  the  olden  time,  in  the  time  when  woman 
was  subordinate;  when  woman  was  humiliated;  when  if  she 
was  a  power,  she  was  a  power  behind  the  throne,  but  rarely 
on  it.  And  yet  when  we  read  in  history,  the  story  of  the 
achievement  of  woman  when  she  had  so  little  chance,  when 
she  had  so  little  power,  we  find  that  whenever  there  was  a 
great  man,  there  was  always  a  great  woman  behind  him.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  don't  mean  in  the  French  sense,  that  whenever  there 
was  mischief,  you  had  to  seek  the  woman;  but  whenever  there 
was  greatness,  you  had  to  seek  the  woman.  If  it  was  Alfred 
the  Great,  King  of  England;  or  Samuel,  the  great  prophet,  or 
Francis  Bacon,  the  great  philosopher,  we  are  always  told  that 
a  great  mother  in  each  of  these  instances  explained  the  genius 
of  the  individual.  Behind  Mohammed,  we  find  Kadisha.  And 
if  these  are  instances  of  what  woman  has  achieved  in  her  sub- 
ordinate, and  in  a  sense,  enslaved  condition,  imagine  what  she 
may  not  achieve  in  the  coming  day,  in  the  era  of  her  thorough 
emancipation.  In  making  this  effort  for  equal  pay,  you  are 
not  only  fighting  for  pay,  you  are  not  only  fighting  for  teach- 
ers, you  are  fighting  for  equality,  and  for  womankind.  (Ap- 
plause.) And  please  understand,  ladies,  that  when,  you  are 
fighting,  if  you  are  fighting,  you  are  not  fighting  as  against 
men,  the  men  are  with  you,  fighting  for  and  with  you.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  dissociate  our  interests.  A  man  cares 
as  much  for  the  welfare  of  his  daughters  as  for  the  welfare  of 
his  sons.  And  if  you  study  the  story  of  the  great  struggle  for 
the  emancipation  of  women,  you  will  find  how  much  men  have 
done  for  the  achievement  of  that  cause. 

But,  ladies,  just  a  word  of  warning.  In  seeking  equality, 
in  seeking  to  be  brought  to  the  level  of  man,  take  care  that  it 
means  being  brought  up  to  the  level  of  man,  and  not  being 
brought  down  to  the  level  of  man.  However  much  you  may 
win,  I  don't  want  you  to  win  this  equality  in  a  way  that  you 
may  lose  more  than  you  gain.  I  would  never  wish  that  time 
to  pass  away  when  man  should  no  longer  need  to  put  around 
woman  his  chivalry  or  protection;  that  he  should  say  she  is 
equal  and  alone,  and  she  does  not  need  me,  and  she  need  not 
look  to  the  man,  as  she  naturally  does  to-day,  for  his  support, 
for  his  guidance,  for  his  seat  in  the  car.  (Laughter.)  For 
those  attentions  that  we  give  to  women  explain  the  whole 
story  of  knighthood  and  chivalry,  because  whenever  the  time 
shall  come  that  woman  is  so  much  the  equal  of  man  that  man 
shall  say  "that  obligation  is  over;  I  need  not  do  this  for  her, 
or  that ";  then  it  would  seem  to  me  that  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  sentiments  in  life  will  have  passed  away. 

One  word  more.  You  will  find,  ladies,  in  life,  that  whenever 
we  work  hard  for  anything,  we  do  not  always  achieve  quite 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        427^ 

the  thing  that  we  are  working  for.  Life  is  so  full  of  unex- 
pected surprises.  It  works  out  in  ever  so  many  unexpected 
ways.  Providence  fulfills  itself  in  mysterious  ways.  But  when 
we  do  work  hard  for  a  cause,  and  loyally,  and  devotedly,  though 
we  may  not  always  achieve  the  thing  we  set  out  to  achieve,  we 
find  because  we  have  loyally  tried,  that  something  else  has 
arisen,  sorriething  imexpected  has  been  achieved,  far  more 
precious  than  the  thing  we  originally  set  out  for. 

Now,  you  have  gone  into  this  fight.  You  have  been  de- 
feated on  a  few  occasions,  but  you  have  never  known  that  you 
were  defeated.  (Applause.)  And  when  we  don't  know  that  we 
are  defeated,  we  are  not  defeated.  (Applause.)  You  are  get- 
ting on  in  this  struggle,  and  every  year,  at  your  banquet,  there 
is  going  to  be  reported  progress  toward  that,  achievement. 
It  may  possibly  be,  ladies,  that  in  the  ultimate  outcome,  some- 
thing different  may  result  than  that  which  you  expect,  than 
that  for  which  you  are  working.  I  said  this  is  a  campaign  of 
education.  It  is  part  of  the  great  sociological  question,  and 
all  sorts  of  unexpected  vistas  of  the  relation  of  woman  in  the 
world  and  in  life,  may  be  the  result  of  your  effort,  and  through 
your  fight.  And  if  you  may  not  in  the  end  just  achieve  this 
particular  thing,  your  effort  may  achieve  a  something  for 
womankind    far  larger,  and  far  more  valuable. 

That  you  may  achieve  what  you  are  seeking,  and  that  you 
may  achieve  a  something  more  precious  still  is  my  heartfelt 
wish  to  you  to-night.     (Applause.) 


PART  THREE— CHAPTER   ONE 
DEMOCRACY   EDITORIALS 

Now,  if  we  could  get  Grace  Strachan  to  go  tiger  shooting  in 
India,  while  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  after  lions  in  Africa,  it  looks  as 
though  we  might  have  a  little  peace  for  a  while. — Brooklyn  Times. 

DEAL  JUSTLY  WITH  THE  14,000  WOMEN  TEACHERS  IN 
MANHATTAN  SCHOOLS 

This  morning,  at  ten  o'clock,  in  the  City  Hall,  the  Mayor  of  New 
York  will  be  called  upon  to  veto  or  approve  a  legislative  bill  which 
deeply  concerns  the  17,000  teachers  and  the  800,000  school  children 
of  the  greater  city. 

It  is  Senate  bill  No.  1210,  and  it  is  designed  to  give  the  women 
teachers  of  New  York  the  same  pay  as  that  now  received  by  the 
men  teachers  for  the  same  work. 

This  is  now  the  law  in  Chicago  and  other  large  cities  of  the 
country.  It  was  the  law,  working  to  excellent  effect,  in  the  fine 
schools  of  Brooklyn  before  Brooklyn  was  consolidated  with  New 
York. 

This  Senate  bill  No.  1210  is  the  successor  of  three  substantially 
similar  bills  which  in  three  successive  years  have  been  passed  by 
overwhelming  majorities  in  the  Legislature  at  Albany.  In  1907 
the  Senate  voted  it  by  45  to  I,  the  Assembly  by  105  to  15.  It  was 
vetoed  by  Governor  Hughes.  In  1908  the  Senate  approved  the 
bill  by  a  two-thirds  majority,  but  it  was  smothered  in  the  House 
against  the  expressed  wish  of  104  out  of  150  members  that  it  be 
brought  to  a  ballot.  In  the  session  of  1909,  just  closed,  the  Senate 
voted  the  bill  by  38  to  3,  and  the  House  by  127  to  14. 

It  awaits  now  the  approval  of  the  Mayor  and  the  Governor. 

Behind  the  Woman's  bill,  then,  there  stand  in  cordial  approval 
three  overwhelming  majorities  of  the  State  Legislature,  14,000  of 
the  17,000  teachers  of  the  greater  city,  a  practically  unanimous 
Board  of  Aldermen,  the  autographed  signatures  of  20,000  taxpayers 
of  New  York,  a  long  list  of  the  leading  merchants,  business  men 
and  publicists  of  the  city,  and  of  a  nearly  unanimous  array  of 
federated  labor  unions  representing  more  than  200,000  citizens  and 
voters. 

Opposed  to  the  bill  there  appears  in  the  open  several  organiza- 
tions of  men  and  taxpayers  and  a  majority  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation who  with  almost  unseemly  haste,  after  a  discussion  of  four 
minutes  and  thirty-seven  seconds,  disposed  of  this  vital  measure. 

438 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         429 

Representatives  of  the  Board  of  Education  and  of  the  men's 
associations  will  be  present  this  morning  to  ask  the  mayor  to  veto 
the  bill,  and  Miss  Grace  Strachan,  at  the  head  of  the  14,000  teachers 
and  the  other  organizations,  will  earnestly  urge  the  mayor  to  ap- 
prove the  measure. 

If  the  mayor  approves  the  bill,  only  the  governor's  signature 
will  be  needed  to  make  it  a  law.  If  the  mayor  vetoes  the  bill  it 
falls  dead  until  another  legislature  convenes  to  revive  it. 

The  American  most  sincerely  trusts  that  the  mayor  will  have 
the  wisdom,  justice  and  courage  to  give  the  hill  his  emphatic 
approval. 

Surely  it  would  seem  proper  and  just  that  where  three  successive 
legislatures,  fresh  from  the  people,  have  so  represented  the  people 
in  their  overwhelming  approval,  and  where  so  many  taxpayers, 
citizens  and  laboring  men  have  heartily  endorsed  the  measure  of 
common  justice  and  good  policy,  that  one  man,  as  the  mayor,  or 
as  the  governor,  should  not  again  deny  the  people  what  the  people 
have  so  repeatedly  and  emphatically  asked  and  demanded,  through 
their  representatives. 

The  New  York  American  plants  itself  first  upon  the  general  and 
primary  proposition  that  the  salaries  doled  out  to  teachers,  male 
and  female,  in  New  York  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  schools 
of  the  country,  are  a  distinct  stigma  upon  the  justice,  gratitude  and 
common  sense  of  the  American  people. 

That  those  who  perform  the  holiest  and  noblest  service  to  the 
Republic  should  he  the  poorest  paid  of  all  its  workers,  is  a  travesty 
upon  the  judgment  and  justice  of  the  people. 

The  woman  teacher  in  New  York  begins  at  a  salary  of  $600.00! 
The  women  in  charge  of  the  public  comfort  stations  have  $750.00! 
The  scrubwoman  appointed  by  the  city  gets  $750.00!  The  tele- 
phone girl  in  the  mayor's  office  gets  $1,300.00  a  year,  with  no  other 
requirement  but  to  be  eighteen  years  old!  The  woman  teacher, 
with  her  six  or  more  years  of  expensive  preparation  at  school, 
must  work  between  seven  and  eight  years  at  her  supreme  task  be- 
fore she  begins  to  earn  what  the  policeman  and  the  fireman  start 
with. — New  York  American,  May  11,  1909. 

TWO  BRAVE  WOMEN  DESERVE  WHAT  MEN  RECEIVE 

Those  big-chested,  broad-shouldered,  manly  men  who  have  been 
fighting  against  equal  pay  for  women  teachers,  and  as  vigorously 
fighting  for  bigger  pay  for  themselves,  all  on  the  ground  of  the 
necessity  for  avoiding  the  de-energizing  of  boys  by  too  much  con- 
tact with  the  feminine  quality  in  the  school  room,  will  do  well  to 
read  the  story  this  morning  of  the  cool,  brave  nerve  of  Principal 
Mary  McClay  and  Vice-Principal  Linda  Henderson,  of  Public 
School  No.  91,  which  saved  perhaps  2500  children  from  panic  and 
death. 


430         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

And  then,  perhaps  these  manly  masculines  may  be  big  enougli 
and  broad  enough,  inside,  to  realize  and  to  confess  that  New  York 
children,  boys  or  girls,  could  not  possibly  learn  any  manlier  lessons 
of  courage  and  strength  and  resource  than  these  brave  teachers 
illustrated  in  that  perilous  hour,  and  that  it  is  a  shame  to  rate  the 
dollar  worth  of  these  splendid  women  below  the  level  of  men 
upon  the  false  basis  of  feminine  weakness  and  timidity. 

Go  to,  thou  male  teacher,  and  be  just! — New  York  American, 
May  25,  1909. 

EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK   IS   MERELY   EDUCA- 
TIONAL JUSTICE 

The  women  teachers  of  New  York  have  called  a  great  mass 
meeting  at  Carnegie  Hall  to-night  to  bring  the  whole  matter  of 
EQUAL  PAY  for  EQUAL  WORK  before  the  public,  and  to  invite 
full  and  fair  discussion  of  the  merits  of  this  great  question  before 
the  assembling  of  the  legislature  and  the  organization  of  the  new 
municipal  administration. 

It  is  the  fair  and  noble  thing  to  do.  The  meeting  should  have 
a  great  attendance  and  be  followed  by  great  results. 

The  American's  cordial  support  of  the  policy  of  equal  pay  for 
equal  work  has  been  a  cardinal  doctrine  of  its  municipal  policy. 

Behind  the  women's  earnest  and  absolutely  just  appeal  there 
stand  fourteen  thousand  of  the  seventeen  thousand  teachers  of 
New  York,  three  successive  ballots  of  three  successive  State  Legis- 
latures in  overwhelming  approval,  a  practically  unanimous  vote 
of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  the  autographed  signatures  of  twenty 
thousand  legal  taxpayers,  a  long  list  of  leading  merchants,  busi- 
ness men  and  publicists,  the  City  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
and  an  array  of  federated  labor  unions  that  include  two  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  workingmen  of  New  York.  All  these  and 
Justice ! 

In  opposition  there  is  gathered  a  hopeless  minority  of  teachers, 
one  or  two  special  associations  of  citizens,  and  a  majority  vote  of 
the  Board  of  Education  after  hasty  and  inadequate  consideration — 
these  and  an  unjust  and  foolish  prejudice! 

How  magnificent  the  disparity  between  the  woman's  just  cause 
and  the  prejudiced  opposition  that  fights  it! 

And  to  the  noble  minds  of  honest  men  and  women  the  disparity 
of  the  argument  is  just  as  great  in  favor  of  the  women. 

Upon  the  one  side  is  justice,  equity,  the  open  record  of  equal 
service,  good  public  policy,  legislative  and  popular  approval,  and 
the  acceptable  experience  of  other  great  cities  of  the  country. 

Upon  the  other  side  is  sex  prejudice,  speculative  apprehension 
and  the  sodden  cry  of  money. 

Patrick  McCarren,  with  whom  The  American  rarely  agreed,  but 


Hon.  Robert  S.  Conklin, 
Pather   of    Assembly    "Equal    Pay"    Bills    of    1907    amd    1908. 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         431 

whose  ability  it  never  questioned,  frankly  and  explicitly  declared 
after  his  long  experience  with  the  school  systems  of  the  metropolis 
that  "  women  make  the  best  teachers  in  the  world."  And  this 
sentiment  The  American  heartily  approves.  They  are  natural 
teachers,  pre-destined  by  instinct  and  equipment  to  deal  with 
children.  It  is  a  tradition  ancient  as  the  race  and  now  accepted  in 
every  theory  of  heredity  that  most  if  not  all  the  great  men  of  the 
world  have  received  their  great  qualities  from  the  character  and 
training  of  great  mothers.  And  this  great  fact  shrivels  into  an  ab- 
surdity the  apprehension  that  women  in  the  schools  "  would 
effeminize  the  children."  Woman's  spirit  and  her  ideals  are  in- 
spiring to  all  youth. 

It  is  the  contact  of  boy  with  boy,  the  Junior  Republic  of  educa- 
tion, that  makes  men,  and  not  more  the  teacher  behind  the  desk. 
It  was  the  Iron  Duke  of  Wellington  who  said  that  "the  battle  of 
Waterloo  was  won  on  the  football  fields  of  Rugby." 

The  money  argument  is  ignoble  and  unworthy  of  this  great  city 
dealing  with  its  noblest  and  mightiest  problem.  Miss  Strachan 
made  clear  the  fact  that  the  four-mill  tax  needed  for  the  increase 
in  the  wage  was  a  part  of  the  original  charter.  It  was  reduced 
during  the  Low  administration  to  three  mills.  The  result  has  been 
insufficient  to  meet  the  school  needs  ever  since,  and  we  are  likely 
under  any  circumstances  to  return  to  the  four-mill  tax. 

But  what  does  it  count  in  this  world-metropolis — this  sum  of 
three  and  one-half  millions  of  dollars — against  the  greater  thing, 
to  establish  justice,  to  properly  pay  good  teachers,  to  renew  a  good 
spirit  in  the  schools,  and  to  inspire  the  children  of  to-day,  who  are 
the  citizens  of  to-morrow?  The  issue  is  too  vast  and  too  vital  to 
be  decided  by  this  sordid  weight  of  money  flung  into  the  scale 
against  justice,  a  great  civic  policy,  and  the  future  of  the  children. 

When  the  people  remember  the  multiplied  millions  that  have  been 
squandered  without  protest  in  the  greed  of  corporations  and  the 
graft  of  politicians  in  New  York,  it  sounds  infinitely  small  and 
insincere,  this  sodden  cry  of  a  politician's  parsimony. 

The  great  meeting  of  to-night  should  go  far  to  fix  public  opinion 
in  favor  of  EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL  WORK.— New  York 
American,  December  17,  1909. 

Whether  men  are  better  qualified  to  teach  grown-up  boys  or 
should  be  employed  in  certain  school  classes  is  not  the  question. 
Different  classifications  of  work  may  properly  pay  different  salaries. 
These  are  questions  outside  the  present  movement.  What  the 
women  teachers  ask  now  is,  that  in  the  same  grade  and  for  the 
same  kind  of  work  the  same  rate  of  pay  shall  be  set  for  men  and 
women  alike.  We  do  not  see  how  that  proposition  can  be  justly 
disputed.  A  teacher  should  not  be  penalized  simply  because  she 
is  a  woman. — Irish-American,  December  24,  1909. 


432         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 


GRAFT  AND  MUNICIPAL  ECONOMY 

Some  very  distinguished  public  servants  and  others  are  busying 
themselves  in  opposing  fair  play  to  women  teachers  on  the  ground 
that  the  city  cannot  afford  to  be  just. 

Neither  this  city  nor  any  other  can  afford  to  be  unjust — ^there 
being  no  other  extravagance  known  to  man  that  is  quite  so  high 
priced. 

But  lake  a  good  look  at  this. 

These  eminent  gentlemen  say  the  Equal  Pay  bill  is  likely  to  cost 
the  city  $6,000,000.  It  will  do  nothing  of  the  kind,  but  suppose 
it  did. 

The  corporations  owe  the  city  of  New  York  $27,000,000  in  back 
taxes. 

The  graft  and  waste  already  uncovered  in  the  city  departments 
amount  to  more  than  $6,000,000  a  year. 

The  graft  in  the  Catskill  water  project  will  be  about  $60,000,000. 

How  do  these  items  foot  up? 

We  do  not  hear  the  eminent  gentlemen  objecting  to  any  of 
these  expenditures.  It  is  only  when  the  women  teachers — among 
the  most  important  and  worst  paid  of  public  servants — ask  for  a 
little  justice  that  the  vision  of  economy  arises  at  the  City  Hall. 

Politician  contractors  must  have  their  graft,  corporations  must 
steal  their  taxes,  heads  of  city  departments  must  be  supplied  with 
automobiles  and  the  women  teachers  can  go  whistle  for  the  money 
they  earn. 

Is  that  the  way  of  it? 

If  we  should  stop  a  small  part  of  the  graft  we  could  deal  justly 
with  these  women,  build  the  schoolhouses  we  need,  provide  play- 
grounds, tear  down  the  Lung  Block  and  be  decent. 

How  about  stopping  the  graft,  anyway?  We  can  if  we  want 
Xo.—Call,  New  York  City,  May  17,  1909. 

SALARIES  IN  THE  CLASSROOM 

Senator  McCarren's  bill  for  the  equalization  of  teachers'  salaries 
in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City  provides  for  the  elimina- 
tion of  'the  adjectives  "  male  "  and  "  female  "  from  the  law  under 
which  the  payrolls  are  made  up.  If  the  bill  should  be  enacted 
the  salaries  now  paid  only  to  men  would  be  paid  to  all  teachens 
doing  the  same  work,  regardless  of  their  sex. 

If  the  wages  of  men  in  the  public  school  service  are  fair  re- 
compense for  the  labor  performed,  such  a  measure  as  Senator 
McCarren's  would  end  the  injustice  which  the  city  now  practices 
towards  the  women  in  its  teaching  corps.  Of  the  fairness  and 
propriety  of  the  salary  schedule  for  men  no  question  has  been 
raised. 


'EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         433 

At  any  rate,  the  ridiculous  discrimination  against  teachers  on 
account  of  their  sex  ought  to  be  ended. — Editorial  New  York 
Sun,  February  12,  1907. 

OUR  TEACHERS  AT  ALBANY 

The  representatives  of  the  male  teachers  of  this  city  did  not 
cut  much  of  a  figure  at  Albany  yesterday.  They  were  in  an  awk- 
ward situation  as  they  faced  the  Assembly  Committee  and  put  for- 
ward their  arguments  against  the  increase  of  the  pay  of  their 
women  colleagues  in  the  presence  of  more  than  300  of  the  latter, 
all  dressed  in  their  very  best  clothes. 

Poor  Mr.  Wellnesley,  he  could  not  help  it.  There  was  a  sug- 
gestion of  the  dog  in  the  manger  when  he  argued  as  follows: 
"  This  bill  says  that  women  teachers  shall  have  equal  pay  for 
equal  work,  but  it  says  nothing  about  a  woman  being  able  to  get 
more  than  a  man.  [Loud  laughter.]  We  men  teachers  want  to 
be  protected  so  we  can't  be  reduced." 

This  argument  brought  from  Mrs.  N.  C.  Lennan  a  little  later 
the  triumphant  response  that  as  assistant  principal  she  got  the 
magnificent  salary  of  $1600  a  year,  though  she  had  to  supervise 
the  work  of  a  man  who  received  $2400,  all  because  of  the  trifling 
accident  of  an  accident. 

But  for  true  frankness  Mr.  Cort  surpassed  all  his  fellow- 
protestants.  He  did  not  mince  matters. '  "  If  this  bill  becomes 
law,"  he  said,  "  it  will  defer  the  increase  in  the  men's  pay."  In 
other  words,  the  self-seeking  male  persons  opposed  what  their  op- 
ponents called  a  simple  act  of  justice  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
tend  to  prevent  the  commission  of  a  further  injustice.  This  con- 
tention suggests  that  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said  for  the  theory 
that  the  reasoning  processes  of  women  are  different  from  those 
of  persons  of  the  other  sex. 

As  far  as  the  home  rule  argument  put  forward  by  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Corporation  Counsel's  office  is  concerned — that  this 
city  is  the  only  one  in  the  state  in  the  case  of  which  the  legis- 
lature has  authority  to  fix  salaries — the  ladies  and  their  friends 
might  well  retort  that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  that.  It  was 
natural  that  they  should  accept  conditions  as  they  found  them  and 
fight  with  the  weapons  that  they  had  ready  to  their  hands.  If  the 
city  refused  to  do  them  justice,  and  if  the  law  gave  them  an  ap- 
peal to  the  lawmaking  body  of  the  Commonwealth,  why  should 
they  not  make  it,  and  if  not,  why  not? 

To  ask  where  the  extra  money  is  to  come  from  is  to  beg  the 
question.  //  an  injustice  is  done  to  competent,  hard  working  and 
faithful  servants  of  the  city,  simply  because  they  are  women  and 
-not  men,  all  right  minded  persons  zvill  be  in  favor  of  having  it 
put  an  end  to,  and  hang  the  expense. — From  the  Evening  Sun, 
Wednesday,  February  27,  1907. 


434        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

THE  EQUAL  PAY  BILL  VETO 

It  was  plain  to  everybody  that  the  mayor  would  veto  the  bill 
equalizing  the  pay  of  men  and  women  teachers  in  the  public 
schools,  or  providing  "  pay  for  position."  But  the  tone  of  his 
memorandum  shows  that  the  women  have  won  a  substantial 
victory. 

To  begin  with,  emphasis  is  laid  by  his  Honor  on  the  fact  that, 
according  to  certain  experts,  the  proposed  change  would  add  $6,- 
000,000  a  year  to  the  budget.  But,  in  spite  of  the  other  fact  that 
this  side  of  the  question  was  aired  at  the  hearing,  and  on  other  oc- 
casions, it  is  clear  that  it  is  a  very  weak  argument.  "  Give  us 
justice.  That  is  all  we  ask,"  say  the  women.  "  Oh,  but  it  would 
be  so  expensive,"  say  the  men.  A  very  lame  and  ridiculous  re- 
joinder. Besides,  sordid  as  the  defence  is,  it  would  be  more  con- 
clusive if  we  lived  in  a  city  and  state  in  which  strict  economy  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  things  earnestly  sought  after  by  persons  in 
office. 

Well,  the  ladies  don't  get  the  money,  not  just  yet.  They  must 
go  on  paying  a  tax  on  the  accident  of  birth.  They  may  command 
in  the  schoolroom,  but,  when  the  time  for  remuneration  comes 
around,  must  realize  that  in  this  best  regulated  of  all  possible 
worlds  doublet  and  hose  is  superior  to  petticoat. 

Now,  in  a  case  like  this,  the  main  thing  is  to  get  attention. 
The  women  court  inquiry,  investigation.  From  the  beginning 
their  appeal  has  been  to  the  record  of  work  done.  The  mayor 
announces  that  he  will  appoint  a  commission  to  investigate  the 
whole  question  in  all  its  aspects.  It  is  safe  to  predict  this  will 
cause  jubilation  in  the  camp  of  the  women  and  gloom  among  the 
men  in  the  department. 

In  the  meantime,  the  opponents  of  the  measure  might  cast  about 
for  some  new  arguments,  for  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  they 
will  be  needed  before  long. — Sun,  May  I2,  1909. 

Whenever  we  have  had  an  opportunity  to  explain  our  cause  to 
any  judge,  from  the  lowest  court  to  the  highest,  we  have  found  him 
on  our  side. — Miss  Strachan  on  the  Mayor's  Committee  of  Inquiry. 

Those  who  demand  equal  pay  for  equal  work  are  in  the  position 
of  making  an  appeal  to  reason.  Their  opponents  appeal  to  prej- 
udice.— Evening  Sun,  June  9,  1909. 

WOMEN,   STATUS  AND  CONTRACT 

The  greatest  jurist  of  the  last  century  held  that  the  most  im- 
portant step  in  modem  progress  was  taken  when  man  passed  from 
a  condition  of  status  to  that  of  contract;  when  he  began  to  make 
his  own  bargains,  instead  of  having  them  made  for  him,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  a  clan  or  family  or  class. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         435 

The  contention  of  the  women  teachers,  as  set  forth  in  the  letter 
printed  in  another  column,  virtually  amounts  to  this,  that,  in  so 
far  as  there  is  discrimination  against  them,  on  the  ground  of  sex, 
their  relation  with  the  community  is  not  contractual,  while  that  of 
the  men  is. 

If  women  are  allowed  to  compete  freely  with  men  in  any  trade, 
profession  or  calling,  and  if  there  is  discrimination  against  them 
in  this  matter  of  remuneration,  it  is  plain  that  the  disability  of 
which  they  complain  is  contrary  to  the  general  tendency  in  the 
direction  of  equality  which  began  with  the  first  married  woman's 
property  act.  For  to  set  up  a  married  woman  as  a  person  with 
property  rights  apart  from  her  husband  was  a  revolutionary  pro- 
ceeding destructive  of  all  discipline  and  submission. — Sun,  January 
31.  1910. 

DIRT  CHEAP 

In  the  course  of  the  discussion  in  the  Board  of  Education  yes- 
terday on  the  resolution  of  Mr.  Somers  providing  for  equal  pay 
for  equal  work  in  the  department,  one  of  the  opponents  of  the 
proposal  put  his  case  this  way: 

We  appoint  very  few  men  teachers  now — the  positions  go  to 
women.  It  is  cheaper  for  the  city  to  have  women  teachers.  The 
cost  is  everything.  If  men  and  women  had  equal  pay  we  would 
appoint  more  men  and  fewer  women  teachers. 

So  at  last  we  have  an  explanation  of  the  activity  of  the  men  in- 
structors. They  labor  day  and  night  to  show  the  injustice  of  giv- 
ing a  woman  the  salary  that  belongs  to  the  office  she  holds. 

But  it  is  net  because  they  are  selfish  or  self-seeking.  Not  at  all. 
The  worthy  males  look  forward  to  the  time  when  there  will  be 
no  expensive,  otherwise  male,  teachers.  For,  just  as  according  to 
Gresham's  law,  bad  money  drives  out  good,  so  cheap  teachers  will 
drive  out  dear  teachers.  The  altruists  will  be  completely  happy 
when  economy,  and  no  other  consideration  whatever,  is  the  be- 
ginning and  end  of  the  city's  policy. — Evening  Sun,  March  17,  1910. 


DR.   ALLEN  ON  UNEQUAL   PAY 

Dr.  William  Allen  went  to  scoff  and  remained  to  bray.  It  was 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Women's  Republican  Club  that  he  appeared  as 
an  advocate  of  unequal  pay  for  equal  work  in  the  public  schools. 
Some  of  the  women  present  being  earnest  supporters  of  Miss 
Grace  Strachan  in  what  they  call  a  fight  for  justice,  were  irritated. 
We  fail  to  see  why  they  should  have  been.  The  good  Doctor  is 
the  best  imaginable  ally  of  his  opponents. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  when  you  have  such  a  bad  case  as  Dr. 
Allen  to  give  your  reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  you.  How 
much  more  convincing  it  would  have  been  if  he  had  confined  him- 


436         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

self  to  the  triumphant  theory  that  women  ought  not  to  be  as  well 
paid  as  the  men  because  they  were  women.  There  is  no  conceiv- 
able answer  to  that. 

But  no.  The  dear  man  digs  up  an  economic  theory.  The 
woman  teacher  must  get  less  than  the  male  "  for  the  same  reason 
that  you  pay  your  cook  what  you  have  to  pay  her  and  no  more. 
It  sounds  cruel,  but  it  is  only  the  working  out  of  the  great  law 
of  supply  and  demand." 

What  he  doesn't  see,  won't  see,  or  can't  see,  is  just  this,  that  by 
giving  the  men  more  pay  qua  men,  the  dear  old  principle  of  supply 
and  demand  is  made  inoperative.  It  is  as  if  the  male  sex  were 
an  infant  industry  that  had  to  be  protected.  For  if  it  is  assumed 
that  equality  would  drive  the  men  out  of  the  service,  then  it  fol- 
lows, of  course,  that  they  and  their  friends  do  not  think  that  they 
would  have  a  chance  if  it  were  a  case  of  a  fair  field  and  no  favor. 

Dr.  Allen  pointed  out  that  the  waste  of  Tammany  Hall  was 
a  negligible  quantity  compared  to  the  waste  of  energy  that  went 
on  in  groups  like  the  one  assembled  before  him.  Of  course 
women  are  never  more  ridiculous  than  when,  instead  of  devoting 
all  their  energy  to  coddling  some  manly  man,  they  give  some  of 
their  attention  to  the  task  of  righting  a  wrong  or  putting  an  end 
to  an  injustice. — Evening  Sun,  December   i6,  1909. 

THE  TEACHERS  SALARIES  BILL 

The  bill  which  gives  to  female  teachers  the  same  salaries  for 
same  services  as  are  given  to  male  teachers,  has  passed  the  Senate 
.  with  only  a  single  vote  against  it.  Before  it  can  become  a  law  it 
must  pass  the  Assembly.  However,  it  is  quite  likely  that  it  will 
pass  that  body  without  amendment.  The  bill  is  now  known  as  the 
White  compromise  bill.  The  diflference  between  the  one  which 
has  just  received  the  sanction  of  the  Senate  and  that  which  was 
originally  introduced  is  of  little  consequence.  The  essential  or 
underlying  principle  was  the  same  in  both.  And  that  is  that 
there  should  be  like  compensation  for  like  service;  that,  in  this 
respect  there  should  be  no  difference  of  sexes. 

This  is  as  it  should  be.  There  was  manifest  injustice  in  this 
preference  of  sexes.  If  women  were  employed  as  teachers  it  was 
because  they  could  perform  the  services  required  quite  as  well  as 
men.  If  they  could  not,  then  their  employment  was  not  justified. 
But  it  was  justified.  The  moment  that  justification  was  made 
then  it  was  clear  that  either  the  men  were  paid  a  larger  sum  than 
was  proper  for  the  performance  of  a  similar  service,  or  the 
women  were  not  paid  enough  if  the  pay  of  the  men  was  proper. 
Consideration  determined  that  the  men  teachers  were  not  too 
highly  paid.  Consequently  it  followed  that  the  women  teachers 
were  inadequately  remunerated.  The  hill  in  question  simply  does 
justice. — Brooklyn  Eagle,  April  16,  1907. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         437 


WOMEN  TEACHERS 

The  charge,  often  made,  that  women  teachers  tend  to  "  feminize  " 
boys  is  vigorously  refuted  by  Professor  John  Dewey,  one  of  our 
foremost  psychologists  and  educators.  "  There  is,"  he  said,  "  no 
more  efficient  body  of  workers  in  America  than  the  great  army  of 
its  women  teachers."  And  to  the  "  feminizing "  charge  he  replied, 
"  Where  are  our  effeminate  boys,  if  you  please  ?  I  have  not  been 
able  to  discover  them."  He  calls  the  whole  theory  "an  English 
pipe-dream." 

Professor  Dewey's  point  is  an  excellent  one.  It  is  quite  certain 
that  our  system  of  education  is  not  producing  effeminate  boys. 
The  reason  for  women's  good  effect  on  children  is  stated  by  Profes- 
sor Dewey.  It  is  that  women  have  as  much  executive  skill  and 
are  capable  of  as  high  intellectual  work  as  men.  Whatever  their 
limitations  are,  they  are  due  to  unfavorable  social  conditions,  which 
may  be  changed,  and  not  to  their  natural  infirmity.  Dr.  Dewey 
insists  that  in  New  York  to-day  there  are  wom.en  better  fitted  to 
hold  important  administrative  posts  in  educational  matters  than 
the  present  male  incumbents,  and  that  there  should  be  women 
professors  in  all  the  universities. — Press,  November  10,   1909. 

MORAL  ASTIGMATISM 

We  imagine  that  disinterested  people  will  read  with  a  feeling 
of  mixed  censure  and  amusement  the  statement  made  by  the  men 
teachers  of  the  elementary  schools,  in  a  pamphlet  addressed  to  the 
Board  of  Education,  in  regard  to  the  subject  of  equal  pay  for  men 
and  women  teachers. 

They,  the  men,  have  come  out  against  equal  pay.  Perfectly 
natural  action,  based  on  naive  selfishness,  is  likely  to  provoke  a 
smile,  mixed  with  unfavorable  criticism.  The  men  are  afraid,  no 
doubt,  that  if  the  women  receive  more  pay  they  (the  men)  will  not 
receive  so  much,  or  that,  at  any  rate,  their  pay  will  not  be  so  likely 
to  be  raised. 

One  of  the  arguments  used  by  the  men  teachers  against  equal 
pay  is  that  such  a  system  would  tend  to  prevent  the  women  marry- 
ing, that  it  would  "  involve  the  establishment  of  a  preferred  celibate 
class."  In  other  words,  these  men  fear  a  system  by  which  women 
maj'  no  longer  feel  themselves  forced  to  marry  for  economic  rea- 
sons. They  say,  in  effect,  "  keep  down  the  salaries  of  women,  for 
if  we  give  them  an  opportunity  for  independence  they  won't  marry 
us." 

Any  action  such  as  this  on  the  part  of  the  men  teachers  which 
tends  to  limit  the  growing  independence  of  women  is  reactionary 
and  shortsighted.  The  fact  that  so  many  women  are  led  to  marry 
in  order  to  improve  their  material  condition  is  hateful  to  our  ideals. 


438    EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

It  is  probably  true  that,  under  a  system  of  equal  pay,  where  serv- 
ices should  be  paid  for  irrespective  of  sex,  some  women  who  row 
marry  would  remain  single.  But  there  are  some  men  to-day  who 
remain  single  because  of  relative  economic  independence,  which 
they  desire  to  maintain.  These  men  are,  however,  relatively  few. 
Women  are  as  instinctive  and  as  normal  as  men  are,  and  independ- 
ence which  they  feared  to  lose  would  prevent  very  few  from 
marrying  when  they  could  make  marriages  which  were  attractive 
to  them.  Independence  of  women  would  improve  marriage,  since 
fewer  women  would  marry  because  of  necessity.  By  the  same 
means  divorce  would  be  decreased,  and  human  happiness  would 
have  a  boom. 

But  these  wide  considerations  do  not  appeal  to  a  body  of  men 
teachers  whom  their  "  interests"  have  made  morally  astigmatic. 
Especially  from  teachers,  perhaps,  we  should  demand  some  element 
of  altruism  and  sympathy  with  social  progress. — Press,  February 
21,  igio. 

"DISCRIMINATION"  AS  AN  ISSUE;  WHAT  IT  MEANS 
IN  THE  MUSICAL  WORLD. 

If  the  United  States  stands,  and  has  stood,  for  anything,  it  is 
against  that  discrimination  which  has  existed  from  time  immemorial 
in  other  countries,  and  which  is  based  on  prejudice,  which  in  turn 
is  based  on  ignorance.  The  United  States,  ever  since  its  Consti- 
tution was  formed,  and  even  before  that,  upheld  the  great  principle 
that  a  man  or  a  woman  shall  be  regarded  "  on  the  merits,"  and  not 
be  condemned  or  brushed  aside  on  account  of  race  or  religion  or 
previous  condition ;  that,  indeed,  in  this  country  humanity  should 
have  a  fresh  start,  better  conditions,  and,  above  all,  greater  op- 
portunities. 

In  nothing  has  this  spirit  shown  itself  more  convincingly  than  in 
the  laws  passed  in  our  various  States,  and  also  by  the  National 
Government,  regarding  women.  The  laws  make  it  impossible  for 
a  man  to  transfer  his  real  estate,  if  he  be  married,  except  with  the 
consent  of  his  wife,  for  the  law  recognizes  the  fact  that  in  the 
acquisition  of  property  the  wife  and  mother  has  contributed  at 
least  a  share. 

For  years,  as  we  know,  in  the  most  advanced  country  in  Europe, 
in  England,  a  woman  could  acquire  no  property,  even  by  her  own 
efforts,  after  she  was  married.  It  was  in  the  husband's  power  to 
come  in  and  seize  and  sell  it  whenever  it  so  pleased  him.  While 
in  this  and  other  respects  we  are  in  this  country  in  advance  of 
other  nations,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  still  serious  prej- 
udices existent  which,  it  is  hoped,  a  more  enlightened  age  will 
remove. 

One  of  these  prejudices  is  the  accepted  dictum  that  no  Catholic 
could  ever  become   President  of  the  United   States.    Another  is 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         439 

the  unjust  social  prejudice  against  the  Hebrew.  Another  is  tlie 
unreasoning  prejudice  against  Asiatics,  even  when  they  are  highly 
educated,  cultured  and  refined.  We  still  have  the  disabilities  under 
which  women  labor  when  they  perform  the  work  of  men,  but  do 
not  get  the  pay  of  men.  Finally,  we  have  the  social  prejudice 
against  teachers  who  are — shameful  to  us  as  it  is — regarded  as 
little  better  than  servants. 

The  movement  to  remove  the  disabilities  of  women  is  world- 
wide. It  is  active  in  such  far-off  countries  as  China,  Persia, 
Turkey;  it  is  active  in  France,  Belgium;  it  is  making  headway  in 
England;  it  has  started  to  become  active  in  this  country.  Back 
of  it  all  is  the  basic  principle  of  "justice,"  namely,  that  there 
shall  be  no  discrimination  against  a  person's  work  or  social  condi- 
tion or  legal  rights  on  account  of  sex. 

An  instance  of  this  movement  was  afforded  in  the  appearance 
before  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  other  day,  of 
Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  superintendent  of  schools  in  Brooklyn, 
who  came  before  the  Mayor  as  the  representative  of  14,000  female 
teachers  in  New  York  City  and  Brooklyn,  to  attend  a  public  hear- 
ing of  a  bill  which  had  recently  passed  both  houses  of  the  legisla- 
ture by  overwhelming  majorities,  as  it  had  already  done  twice 
before,  to  equalize  the  pay  of  the  teachers  in  the  schools  of  Greater 
New  York.     .     .    . 

In  the  first  place,  the  bill  did  not  ask  for  more  pay  for  the 
teachers.  What  it  demanded  was  "justice,"  namely,  that  the 
women  teachers  should  be  paid  what  the  job  was  worth  when  they 
did  the  same  work  as  the  men. 

Now,  there  are  some  14,000  female  teachers  in  Greater  New 
York,  and  some  3000  men  teachers;  It  has  been  urged  in  some 
papers  that  the  women  are  not  entitled  to  the  same  pay  as  men 
because  they  are  not  as  competent.  It  logically  follows,  therefore, 
that  the  great  City  of  New  York,  the  greatest  city  in  the  United 
States,  which  we  consider  the  greatest  country  in  the  world,  is 
deliberately  giving  its  children  inferior  teachers,  simply  because 
they  are  cheaper,  which  convicts  it  of  a  crime. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  admitted,  as  it  should  be,  that  the 
women  teachers  are  fully  as  competent  as  the  men — and  as  I  will 
assert,  with  many  others,  in  the  earlier  stages  they  are  far  more 
competent  than  men — then  the  city  is  convicted  of  gross  injustice, 
for  it  is  convicted  of  paying  the  women  for  work  which  is  as  good 
as  the  men's  less  than  the  men,  simply  because  they  are  women! 

And  let  us  not  forget  that  higher  pay  for  the  women  means 
to  induce  a  higher  grade,  a  more  educated,  more  intelligent  type 
of  woman  to  enter  the  school-teaching  business.  It  needs  no  argu- 
ment to  show  that  this  means  more  for  the  progress  of  the  city 
than  can  be  accomplished  by  the  expenditure  of  money  in  any 
other  possible  direction,  for  if  a  nation  is  finally  based  on  the 
home,  and  the  home  is  based  on  the  individual,  the  training  of  the 


440         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

individual  citizen  is  the  very  foundation  of  our  civilization,  cer- 
tainly the  foundation  of  possible  progress  and  evolution  to  higher 
and  better  conditions. 

The  argument  which  is  made  by  some  that  legislation  from 
Albany  is  not  the  proper  way  to  get  at  the  issue  is  a  quibble,  for 
the  reason  that  it  is  well  known  that  no  appeal  to  the  Board  of 
Estimate  on  behalf  of  the  women  would  have  had  the  slightest 
effect. 

And  it  is  only  because  the  legislature  has  again  and  again  passed 
this  bill  and  made  the  officials  of  New  York  realize  that  there  is  a 
great  public  sentiment  back  of  it  that  the  mayor  has  finally  been 
forced  by  public  opinion,  evidently  against  his  will,  to  appoint  a 
commission  to  get  at  the  facts,  although  in  the  appointment  of  the 
commission  he  evades  the  main  issue,  which  is  one  of  simple 
justice. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  trades  unions  that  they  long  ago  main- 
tained the  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  insisted,  in 
every  industry  where  they  were  powerful,  that  if  the  women  did 
the  work  as  well  as  the  men,  as  competently  as  the  men,  as  thor- 
oughly as  the  men,  they  should  get  the  same  pay  as  the  men. 

It  has  been  said  by  some  that  one  of  the  reasons  why  women 
should  accept  a  lower  wage  for  the  same  work  than  men  is  that 
the  man  is  generally  responsible,  as  the  head  of  the  family,  for 
many  mouths,  where  the  woman  has  only  herself  to  care  for. 

This,  again,  is  a  quibble,  but  even  if  true  would  not  touch  the  issue 
of  justice.  The  average  woman  teacher,  it  would  be  found  on 
investigation,  has  as  a  rule  from  two  to  three  dependent  upon  her. 
Either  it  is  a  widowed  mother,  a  sick  sister,  a  helpless  father,  or 
she  is  struggling  alone  to  help  her  little  brothers  and  sisters  to  an 
education  and  to  an  opening  in  life. 

It  can  be  safely  said  that  not  5  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  in 
Greater  New  York  are  in  a  position  where  they  can  spend  the 
money  they  earn  upon  themselves — and  in  the  name  of  common 
sense  and  fair  play,  what  is  the  money  they  get? 

Do  people  realize  that  these  women  teachers,  who  are  so  bound 
up  with  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  our  social  life,  are,  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases,  receiving  less  salary  than  the  janitors  of 
the  buildings  in  which  they  do  their  teaching? 

The  members  of  the  musical  world  are  interested  in  this  fight 
by  the  women  teachers  for  justice,  for,  as  I  have  shown,  they 
themselves  suffer  gravely  from  discrimination.  And  so  it  will  be 
well  for  them  not  merely  to  take  an  interest  in  so  far  as  the  issue 
affects  their  particular  profession,  but  whenever  they  can,  by  word, 
by  deed,  by  vote  where  possible,  to  struggle  against  discrimination 
of  whatever  kind,  wherever  it  is  found. 

In  doing  this  they  will  ultimately  help  themselves,  and  take 
their  stand  with  those  of  the  higher  intelligence,  the  broader  mind, 
the  larger  sympathies,  who  are  struggling  for  humanity's  uplift 


EQUAL  'PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        441 

against  which  all  the  forces  of  prejudice,  of  ignorance,  of  class, 
of  graft  and  greed  will  ever  be  arrayed. — John  C.  Freund,  Musical 
America,  May  29,  1909. 


BATTLING  FOR  THE  RIGHT 

A  fight  not  unlike  that  for  the  standard  is  on  in  New  York  City 
over  the  question  of  "  Equal  work,  equal  pay."  Nor  is  it  knights 
in  armor  who  contend.  It  is  women  on  one  side,  backed  by  some 
big-minded  men,  with  men  on  the  other.  For  a  long  time  those 
familiar  with  the  work  of  schools  are  well  aware  of  a  fact  that  is 
so  prominent  that  it  strikes  out  all  over  the  system  and  that  is  the 
fact  that  the  best  school  work  on  the  whole  is  done  by  women. 
This  being  so  it  is  hard  to  understand  the  policy,  short-sighted 
and  unfair,  that  pays  them  less  wages  than  are  paid  to  men  for  an 
equal  amount  of  the  same  kind  of  work.  It  takes  a  long  time  for 
social  justice  to  catch  up  with  what  is  called,  for  want  of  a  better 
name,  natural  justice.    But  it  does  in  the  end.  .  .  . 

That  such  a  time  is  to  come,  is  on  the  way  hither,  is  just  as  cer- 
tain as  sunrise  and  sunset.  Wie  welcome  these  women  to  the  ranks 
of  the  republic's  best  friends,  for  those  are  its  best  friends  who 
fight  the  battles  of  righteousness ;  and  one  of  these  battles  is  about 
equal  wages  for  equal  work ;  and  Miss  Grace  Strachan  is  its  heroine 
and  leader.  That  she  is  to  win  in  the  end  is  just  as  sure  as  justice. 
Only  a  little  longer  delay  is  possible.  Petty  men  pass,  poltroons, 
time  or  party-serving  politicians  pass — principles  remain. — The 
Catholic  Times,  June  2,  1909. 

"EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL  WORK" 

On  April  24th,  twelve  hundred  teachers  were  gathered  at  a 
banquet  given  in  the  famous  Hotel  Waldorf-Astoria,  in  New  York 
Cit}'.  They  were  representatives,  and  their  friends,  of  a  local  or- 
ganization of  women  teachers  having  an  active  membership  of  about 
twelve  thousand,  or  more  than  twice  the  number  of  the  active 
members  of  the  National  Education  Association.  It  is  probably 
the  largest  teachers'  union  in  the  world  and  owes  its  vitality  chiefly 
to  the  magnificent  leadership  of  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  one  of  the 
district  superintendents  of  schools  in  New  York. 

The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers — that  is  the 
name — was  reared  on  the  single  idea  of  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work." 
In  New  York  City  the  teachers  in  a  number  of  the  higher  gram- 
mar grades  are  men.  Their  salaries  are  larger  than  those  of  the 
women  teaching  the  same  grades.  A  woman  earning  advancement 
to  a  principalship  does  not  receive  the  pay  of  a  man  occupying  a 
like  position,  and  the  maximum  to  which  she  can  attain  is  consider- 
ably less  than  that  held  out  to  her  brothers.     The  Interborough 


442         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Association  was  formed  to  do  away  with  this  discrimination  be- 
tween the  sexes. 

An  interesting  discussion  resuUed.  The  opponents  of  the  Asso- 
ciation made  much  of  the  plea  that  the  women  have  only  themselves 
to  support,  while  the  men  are  usually  heads  of  families,  with  several 
people  to  take  care  of.  The  question  naturally  suggested  itself, 
why  unmarried  men  were  receiving  as  much  as  the  married  ones. 
Furthermore,  it  could  be  demonstrated  that  the  burden  of  responsi- 
bility resting  upon  most  of  the  women  is  quite  as  heavy  in  every 
way  as  that  resting  upon  the  male  supporters  of  dependents. 

Another  retort  was  that  the  men  supplied  a  something  that  the 
pupils,  especially  the  boys,  were  much  in  need  of,  and  which  women 
could  not  give.  This  something  was  characterized  in  various  ways. 
Manliness  is  probably  the  best  word  for  it.  The  manly  example, 
the  male  attitude  of  looking  at  things,  masculine  reasoning  and 
forcefulness  are  no  doubt  strong  educational  factors.  How  essential 
they  are  to  successful  elementary  school  work  is  a  difficult  question 
to  answer.    .    .    . 

There  is  another  matter  involved.  School  inspectors  and  super- 
intendents and  other  supervisors  and  examiners  base  their  judg- 
ment of  teachers  upon  results  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  "  man- 
liness." It  would  seem  to  be  only  just  that  there  should  be  a  stan- 
dard, measured  by  which  the  difference  between  the  work  of  men 
and  women  teachers  would  become  evident.  Competition  between 
the  sexes  could  then  be  placed  on  a  basis  of  fairness.  It  is  just 
possible  that  some  women  teachers  supply  more  training  in  "  man- 
liness "  than  some  men  who  receive  better  pay  because  of  the  as- 
sumption of  the  superiority  of  the  latter.  .  .  . — School  Journal, 
(Ossian  Lang),  March  7,  1909. 

TEACHERS  AS  SUPPORTERS  OF  DEPENDENTS 

The  argmnents  brought  forward  to  promote  the  advancement  of 
teachers'  salaries  must  be  framed  with  extreme  caution,  lest  there 
be  unpleasant  reaction  along  unguarded  lines.  The  arraignment  of 
women  against  men,  or  of  men  against  women,  is  an  especially 
unwise  procedure.  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  reality  of  the  jus- 
tice behind  the  demands  for  a  better  remuneration  of  the  teacher's 
services.  Do  not  let  us  permit  this  to  be  obscured  by  fruitless 
discussions  about  the  economic  value  of  the  sexes  in  the  market 
places  of  the  world. 

Those  women  teachers  of  New  York  City  who  regard  Miss 
Strachan  as  their  leader  have  a  strong  claim  in  their  insistence 
upon  "equal  pay  for  equal  work."  The  men  who  are  trying  to 
weaken  the  cause  of  these  women  are  bound  to  fail.  The  plea 
that  the  man  supports  a  family,  while  the  woman  has  only  her- 
self to  take  care  of,  can  easily  be  shown  to  be  without  real  founda- 
tion in  fact,  besides  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  real  issue.    The 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        443 

truth  is,  that  most  teachers — men  and  women  alike — ^have  not 
only  themselves  to  take  care  of,  but  contribute  also  to  the  sup- 
port of  dependent  relatives.  Times  have  changed.  Arguments 
based  on  conditions  that  have  passed  away  can  be  of  no  avail  when 
the  searchlight  of  intelligence  is  turned  upon  them. 

Men  are  excluded  from  wage-earning  pursuits  at  an  earlier  age 
than  they  were  in  former  days.  Women  have  become  the  com- 
petitors of  men  in  nearly  all  lines.  Meanwhile,  the  number  of 
dependent  parents  has  grown  to  large  proportions,  and  the  care 
of  them  has  fallen  largely  upon  the  children.  To  what  extent  the 
burden  has  been  shifted  to  the  lot  of  the  daughters,  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  state.  I  do  know  that  there  are  few  women  teachers 
who  are  free  of. family  responsibilities  which  consume  a  portion 
of  their  earnings.  I  have  heard  of  these  few,  but  I  have  never 
met  them. 

Two  or  three  typical  examples  will  make  the  point  clear. 

One  of  the  best  salaried  women  is  principal  of  an  Eastern  train- 
ing school  for  teachers.  She  receives  something  like  $2,500  a  year. 
In  the  fifteen  years  I  have  known  her  there  never  was  a  time 
when  she  did  not  carry  on  some  university  work  for  self-improve- 
ment and  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times  in  pedagogical  sociology 
and  psychology.  She  subscribes  to  the  most  helpful  periodicals, 
and  spends  a  portion  of  every  vacation  at  a  summer  school.  She 
dresses  well,  as  becomes  her  office,  and  pays  the  ordinary  taxes 
which  social  life  exacts  of  cultured  women.  She  has  supported  her 
widowed  mother  almost  from  the  day  when  she  began  to  teach, 
and  has  borne  the  expense  of  the  education  of  her  younger  sisters. 
In  her  school  are  many  poor  pupils  who  have  received  substantial 
aid  from  her.  And  this  is  the  type  of  the  noble  woman  teacher  of 
whom  there  are  thousands  in  the  common  school  service. 

A  young  woman  of  twenty-two  became  supervisor  of  music 
in  a  Western  city  at  a  salary  of  $900.  She  had  drawn  only  one 
monthly  check  when  her  father  lost  his  position,  and  in  spite  of 
every  endeavor  could  find  no  permanent  employment  because  of 
aged  appearance  and  feeble  health.  The  daughter  reduced  her 
personal  expenses  to  the  lowest  possible  point,  and  contributed 
the  balance  of  her  money  to  the  support  of  the  family.  She  felt 
compelled  to  look  for  a  better  salaried  place  in  the  East,  near  the 
home  of  her  parents.  The  $1,100  she  was  paid  shrank  considerably 
under  the  increased  demands  the  new  office  made  upon  her  purse. 
She  undertook  evening  school  and  vacation  school  work  to  supply 
her  family  with  the  necessities  of  life.  The  strain  proved  too 
much  for  her  young  life.     She,  too,  is  a  type. 

A  teacher  in  a  city  school  receives  $400  a  year.  A  widowed 
mother  and  two  small  sisters  are  dependent  upon  her  for  support. 
After  school  hours  she  has  private  pupils.  The  intelligence,  energy, 
pluck,  and  resourcefulness  of  this  teacher  would  bring  her  twenty 
dollars  a  week  in  a  commercial   life.     But   she  wants   to  teach. 


444         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

And  so  she  tries  to  earn  enough  by  outside  work  to  enable  her  to 
stay  in  the  common  school  service.  The  city  that  pays  her  $400 
gives  the  janitor  of  the  school  $1,200.  But  he  has  a  wife  and  two 
children  to  support. 

Now  consider  that  there  are  not  a  few  who  receive  only  $300 
or  less  a  year,  and  these,  too,  have  calls  for  financial  aid.  Yet, 
the  teacher  who  is  worried  about  the  daily  bread  cannot  possibly 
give  the  best  strength  to  the  work.  In  no  other  occupation  is  the 
drain  upon  the  vital  forces  so  constant.  Irritability  has  serious 
eflfects  upon  the  developing  characters  of  the  pupils.  An  atmos- 
phere of  cheerful  serenity  is  the  most  favorable  condition  for 
the  education  of  the  young,  and  that  is  naturally  dependent  upon 
the  personality  of  the  teacher.  Worry  is  conducive  neither  to 
cheerfulness  nor  serenity.  The  communities  that  keep  their  teachers 
poor  are  depriving  their  own  children  of  a  most  valuable  part  of 
education. 

It  costs  money  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  progress  of  the  world. 
A  person  of  cultivation  has  many  necessary  expenses  that  others 
manage  to  do  without.  The  very  office  of  the  teacher  makes  cer- 
tain special  demands  that  involve  expense  which  are  not  required 
of  either  the  bricklayer  or  the  paperhanger.  Attendance  at  edu- 
cational conventions  is  most  desirable  for  efficiency,  and  that  neces- 
sitates further  expense.  School  communities  do  not  seem  to  have 
these  considerations  in  mind  when  fixing  the  salaries  of  teachers. 

Here  is  a  line  of  arguments  that  tell. — The  School  Journal, 
Ossion  Lang,  Editor,  September  21,  1907. 

COST 

The  cost  of  the  proposed  law  has  been  carefully  estimated  at 
about  six  million  dollars,  and  at  no  hearing  either  before  the  local 
School  Board  or  the  Senate  or  Assemblies  Cities  Committee  has 
a  single  taxpayer  or  tax-paying  organization  protested.  Instead, 
the  advocates  of  the  proposed  legislation  are  in  receipt  of  endorse- 
ments from  hundreds  of  thousands  of  voters  and  taxpayers,  to 
say  nothing  of  numerous  organizations. — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

PAY  THE  WOMEN  LIKE  MEN 

The  Wall  Street  Journal  has  been  requested  to  speak  favorably 
of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  Davis  law.  This  law  makes  the 
salaries  of  women  employed  as  teachers  in  New  York  city  from 
SO  to  70%  of  those  of  men  occupying  corresponding  positions. 
It  is  proposed  by  amendment  to  make  the  salaries  equal. 

The  Wall  Street  Journal  cheerfully  responds  to  this  request. 
In  the  field  of  teaching  women  are  in  a  true  vocation,  and  are 
the  equals  of  men.  There  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  they 
perform  their  duties  with  at  least  equal  fidelity  and  ability  as  com- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         445 

pared  with  male  teachers.  Performing  corresponding  duties  with 
equal  fidelity  and  ability  they  should  be  paid  the  salaries  paid  to 
men. 

There  is  no  other  item  of  public  expense  which  is  more  justified 
by  economic  results  and  none  which  gives  a  larger  dividend  of 
prosperity  than  education,  and  there  is  nothing  that  will  con- 
tribute more  to  education  than  the  employment  of  good  teachers, 
women  as  well  as  men,  adequately  paid  on  a  basis  of  equality.— 
Wall  Street  Journal,  February  25,  1907. 

THE   EQUAL   PAY   FIGHT   ONCE   MORE 

Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan  is  at  any  rate  a  courageous  fighter. 
All  sorts  of  dire  things  were  threatened  against  her  because 
she  went  to  Albany  and  induced  many  teachers  to  go  with  her 
in  order  to  fight  .for  equal  pay  for  equal  work  in  the  public 
schools  without  regard  to  sex.  The  Board  of  Education  and 
the  Tammany  Mayor  foamed  and  frothed  about  home  rule, 
when  they  meant  Tammany  rule,  and  the  Governor,  accepting 
the  time-worn  slogan  at  its  face  value  in  the  mouths  of  these 
valiant  political  trenchermen,  although  he  paid  no  attention  to 
it  when  his  own  pet  Public  Utilities  bill  knocked  home  rule 
higher  than  Gilroy's  kite,  finally  defeated  the  measure. 

And  they  would  have  been  still  under  the  feet  of  the  poli- 
ticians if  the  Legislature  had  not  listened  to  the  appeal  of  the 
teachers  to  a  petition  protesting  against  the  repeal  of  the  Davis 
bill. 

Just  the  same  home-rule  howl  was  raised  against  these  most 
just  and  equitable  measures,  the  latter  of  which  is  HOt  unfitly 
spoken  of  as  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  Public  Schools,  but  it 
did  not  avail,  because  its  utter  insincerity  was  then  clearly 
understood  in  the  Executive  Chamber  at  Albany.  And  it  was 
fully  as  insincere  when  it  was  raised  this  year  against  the  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  bill. 

At  least  the  women  teachers  are  without  redress  in  that  di- 
rection, however  the  case  may  stand  against  the  male  teachers. 
These  latter  are  now  alarmed  about  the  Davis  bill,  a  measure 
they  never  could  have  succeeded  in  passing  without  the  aid  of 
the  women  teachers.  The  home-rule  cry,  in  whooping  up  which 
they  so  vigorously  joined  last  year  in  order  to  defeat  the  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  bill,  is  being  started  again,  this  time  with 
the  design  of  repealing  the  Davis  bill,  so  that  the  teachers  of 
both  sexes  may  be  once  more  under  control  of  Tammany. 

To  ward  off  the  impending  blow,  the  very  male  teachers  who 
worked  so  bitterly  against  the  equal  pay  for  equal  work  bill  of 
last  year  are  now  trying  to  get  the  signatures  of  the  women 
teachers  to  a  petition  protesting  against  the  repeal  of  the  Davis 
bill. 


446         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Miss  Strachan  meets  the  men  teachers  in  militant  style. 

Remembering  the  warfare  they  conducted  against  the  women 
teachers  last  winter  at  Albany,  she  issued  a  statement  yesterday 
addressed  to  the  women  teachers,  in  which  she  says,  among 
other  things: 

"  You  know  that  many  of  the  very  men  who  are  seeking  your 
signatures  did  all  in  their  power  to  prevent  our  success  last 
year,  even  being  guilty  of  threats  of  unjust  treatment  of  their 
subordinates  and  of  misrepresentation  of  facts.  Why,  then, 
should  you  concern  yourselves  over  the  advisability  of  signing 
papers  sent  around  by  any  association  other  than  the  Inter- 
borough  Association  of  Women  Teachers,  the  largest  and 
strongest  association  of  teachers  in  the  world?" 

Here  is  no  note  of  surrender,  but  a  courageous  defiance  not 
only  of  their  opponents  of  last  year  among  the  men  teachers 
and  principals,  but  of  the  politicians  and  others  behind  them 
who  think,  or  pretend  to  think,  a  woman  is  not  entitled  to  as 
much  pay  as  a  man  for  doing  precisely  the  same  kind  of  work. 
However,  the  leader  of  the  women  teachers  adds  that  if  they 
desire  to  sign  the  petition  for  the  retention  of  the  D'avis  bill 
they  should  do  so  only  when  a  clause  is  added  making  pro- 
vision for  an  amendment  giving  equal  pay  for  equal  work  with- 
out regard  to  sex.  Following  a  great  historical  example,  the 
women  are  evidently  going  to  fight  it  out  on  that  line  if  it 
takes  all  summer. — The  Standard-Union,  Brooklyn,  Saturday  Even- 
ing, December  14,  1907. 

Author's  Note — The  Tammany  leaders  have  favored  the 
women  teachers'  bills  and  all  the  Tammany  members  of  the 
Legislature  have  voted  for  them,  with  the  exception  of  one 
Bronx  Assemblyman,  who  was  defeated  for  re-election,  No- 
vember, 1909. 

Miss  Grace  Strachan  makes  it  plain  that  what  the  women 
teachers  are  fighting  for  is  not  more  salary,  but  equal  pay  for 
equal  work.  Three  million  dollars  a  year  increase  voted  by 
the  Board  of  Education  two  years  ago,  but  refused  by  the 
Board  of  Estimate,  was  not  what  the  members  of  Miss  Strach- 
an's  organization  asked  for,  nor  does  $6,000,000  a  year  pro- 
posed BOW  meet  the  principle  for  which  they  are  striving.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  more  or  less  money,  but  of  the  mainte- 
nance or  abolition  of  a  discrimination  expressly  based  upon 
sex  and  nowhere  expressly  based  upon  qualifications. — Brook- 
lyn Standard-Union,  July  16,  1909. 

ON  THE  FEMALE  TEACHERS'   MOVEMENT 

Last  Thursday  night  there  was  a  mass  meeting  of  women 
teachers  at  Cooper  Union  in  the  interest  of  the  equalization  of 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         447 

salaries.  The  opponents  of  that  idea  were  also  out  in  force  and 
distributed  circulars,  part  of  which  read  as  follows: 

"  When  a  woman  not  charged  with  a  home,  not  contributing 
to  the  family  life  of  the  nation,  enters  the  industrial  field,  she 
is  entitled  to  compensation  as  an  individual  only.  She  is  not 
entitled  to  the  same  pay  as  the  man  whose  just  wage  is  the 
family  wage." 

We  doubt  if  there  was  a  better  argument  presented  by  the 
female  teachers  themselves  than  in  this  extract  from  the  objec- 
tions of  their  opponents.  The  circular  quoted  speaks  of  Jhe 
"just"  wage  of  the  man  of  family,  but  there  is  really  no  wage 
to-day  that  is  based  upon  the  necessary  support  of  a  family. 
And  it  is  for  this  very  reason  that  the  wage  of  the  man  no 
longer  suffices  to  keep  the  family  that  women  have  been  forced 
to  seek  employment  in  industry  and  in  the  professions.  In 
fact,  the  only  wage  known  to-day  is  the  individual  wage,  and 
that  wage  is  regulated  by  the  competition  between  the  individ- 
uals, male  and  female,  of  the  one  family,  aye,  even  the  children 
of  the  family  enter  into  the  competition. 

No  more  than  cattle  are  paid  for  in  the  "  Cattle  Market "  at 
the  "  family  price "  of  the  bull,  are  wage  earners,  among  whom 
teachers  take  their  place,  paid  for  in  the  "  Labor  Market "  at 
the  family  price  of  the  male. 

Woman,  until  the  growth  of  the  factory  system,  was  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  a  domestic  servant,  part  of  whose  household 
duties  consisted  in  spinning,  weaving,  making  clothes,  etc.,  etc. 
Woman  was  a  producer,  though  mainly  for  the  consumption  of 
her  own  family,  and  when  the  household  production  .developed 
into  factory  production  she  had  to  follow  it  to  the  factory,  just 
as  the  handicraft  man  had  to  abandon  his  little  shop  and  follow 
the  developed  tool  into  the  factory. 

In  domestic  servitude  in  the  family  woman  received  no 
"pay,"  in  the  present  day  sense,  she  shared  in  the  general 
product.  And  now  that  she  has  "  freedom "  to  work,  the  ex- 
ploiters bargain  to  hold  her  to  the  no-cash  basis  that  was  a 
feature  of  her  domestic  servitude. 

So  real  a  fact  is  it  that  individual  production,  and  not  pro- 
duction by  the  head  of  the  family,  has  become  the  order  of 
the  day  that  where  women  do  not  go  out  and  work  you  find 
them  bringing  work  home,  or  taking  lodgers  or  boarders,  in 
order  to  hold  up  their  individual  end  of  the  family  production. 

We  are  glad  to  see  the  women  school  teachers  organizing  in 
an  effort  to  better  their  condition.  What  is  needed  among 
women  is  a  keener  sense  of  solidarity.  They  are  yet  suffering 
from  the  long  heritage  of  isolation  endured  by  their  mothers. 
All  the  real  advantages  that  exploited  woman  may  gain  will 
only  be  secured  by  joining  hands  with  her  exploited  brother 
man  and  wrenching  such  advantages  from  the  exploiting  class 


448        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

— be  they  Boards  of  Education  or  Boards  of  Directors  of  cor- 
porations.— Weekly  People,  New  York  City,  February  8,  1908. 

Mayor  McClellan  is  right.  He  says  he  vetoed  the  women 
teachers'  bill  because  it  was  his  "sacred  duty  to  do  so."  So 
it  was.  A  Democratic  or  a  Republican  official  is  a  personage 
who  directly  and  indirectly  has  pledged  his  sacred  word  to 
safeguard  the  interests  of  the  capitalist  class.  The  capitalist 
class  is  the  taxpayer.  The  taxes  it  pays  come,  it  is  true,  from 
wealth  produced  by  the  proletariat,  but  it  is  a  wealth  that  the 
proletariat  is  plundered  of  in  the  shop.  It  follows  that  the 
higher  the  taxes  all  the  more  has  the  capitalist  class  to  dis- 
gorge in  the  shape  of  taxes  The  equalization  of  salaries  bill 
amounted  to  higher  taxation.  The  sacredly  pledged  Mayor 
vetoed  the  bill.  True  McClellan!  All  credit  to  our  God-fearing 
Mayor! — People,  New  York  City,  May  29,  1909. 

THE   TEACHERS'   SALARIES 

A  month's  study  of  the  problem  of  equal  pay  for  teachers  in 
the  public  schools  has  sufficed  only  to  convince  Mayor  McClel- 
lan's  commission  that  a  deliberate  investigation  of  the  whole 
subject  must  be  made  if  any  satisfactory  result  is  to  be  obtained. 
So  extensive  is  the  field  and  so  complex  the  factors  that  noth- 
ing but  a  superficial  survey  was  possible  in  the  time  at  com- 
mand. That  glaring  inequalities  exist  the  commission  had  no 
difficulty  in  finding  out.  The  further  the  matter  was  probed 
the  more  apparent  became  the  need  of  something  like  a  com- 
plete reconstruction  of  the  entire  system  of  compensation. 
Simple  justice  and  the  city's  best  interests  alike  demand  that 
every  man  and  woman  employed  in  training  our  children  shall 
be  fairly  treated,  and  that  arbitrary  distinctions,  the  outgrowth 
of  custom,  shall  be  abolished. 

But  discernment  of  the  absurdities  and  injustice  of  the  pre- 
vailing system  is  one  thing — a  thing  of  which  any  reasonable 
person  of  ordinary  intelligence  is  capable — and  discovery  of  a 
practicable  means  for  removing  these  obstacles  to  rational  ad- 
ministration is  quite  another.  The  mayor's  commission,  recog- 
nizing this  difficulty,  has  contented  itself  with  putting  forward, 
merely  tentatively,  various  alternative  plans.  No  recommen- 
dation accompanies  them.  Admittedly  none  of  them  goes  to 
the  heart  of  the  matter.  They  serve  rather  to  make  clear  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  arriving  at  a  thorough  solution.  What 
is  required  if  this  object  is  to  be  achieved  is  a  painstaking  in- 
quiry by  a  body  of  candid  and  competent  investigators,  which 
should  include  women  as  well  as  men,  who  will  give  the  time 
necessary  to  get  all  the  facts  upon  which  to  base  a  sound  judg- 
vnent. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         449 

This  duty  devolves  upon  the  incoming  administration,  and 
the  sooner  it  is  undertaken  the  better  for  the  good  name  and 
the  welfare  of  the  city. — The  Globe,  December  29,  1909. 

WOMEN  SHOULD  RECEIVE  THE  SAME  PAY  AS  MEN 
IF  THEY  DO  THE  SAME  WORK 

The  resolution  now  before  the  Board  of  Education,  provid- 
ing that  women  teachers  shall  be  paid  the  same  salaries  as 
men  teachers  when  they  do  the  same  work,  should  not  be  held 
up  very  long.  It  should  be  passed  without  any  debate.  Equal 
pay  for  equal  work  is  sound  common  sense,  and  unequal  pay 
for  doing  the  same  thing  is  unfair  and  absurd  on  the  face 
of  it.  If  a  man  receive  $2,000  a  year  for  teaching  arithmetic 
to  a  room  full  of  boys  and  he  throws  up  his  job  and  a  woman 
is  put  in  his  place  and  does  the  same  work  as  he  does,  and 
just  as  well,  why  should  she  receive  $1,200  a  year?  It  is  not 
only  an  injustice  to  the  women  teachers,  but  it  comes  close 
to  being  an  affront,  inasmuch  as  the  board  members  say  in 
eflfect  that  they  do  not  believe  that  women  do  the  work  as  well 
as  men  do — while  we  and  all  the  world  know  that  in  the  public 
schools,  especially  those  attended  by  the  youngest  children, 
women  teachers  are  the  more  capable  and  patient  and  con- 
scientious.— Telegraph,  Dec.  25,  1909. 

EQUALIZING  THE  SALARY  OF  MALE  AND  FEMALE 
TEACHERS 

If  a  male  teacher  receives  $1,200  a  year  it  is  presumable  that 
his  service  is  worth  that  sum.  If  a  female  teacher  receives 
for  the  same  amount  and  quality  of  work  $1,000,  that  reduction 
amounts  to  taxing  her  $200  for  being  a  woman,  and  is  neither 
equity  nor  chivalry. — Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church, 
Rev.  C.  H.  Parkhurst,  Pastor,  May  19,  1907. 

TEACHERS'   SALARIES 

All  over  the  country  questions  affecting  public  schools  are 
alive  and  stirring.  Among  these  questions  those  which  con- 
cern salaries  for  teachers  have,  in  a  number  of  cities,  for  sev- 
eral years  been  especially  acute.  The  Legislature  of  New  York 
is  now  considering  a  bill  to  equalize  the  payment  of  men  and 
women  teachers  for  equal  pay.  At  present  a  man  may  receive 
a  higher  salary  than  a  woman  who  is  his  official  superior  and 
the  supervisor  of  his  work.  A  woman  as  principal  of  a  school 
may  receive  less  than  a  man  may  receive  among  the  youngest 
children  in  the  very  lowest  grade,  where,  by  the  way,  he  ought 
not  to  be  allowed  at  all,  and  where  he  is  put  usually  only  for 


450         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

incompetence  in  the  upper  grades.  Such  flagrant  injustice  in 
the  long  run  is  flagrantly  bad  economy,  for  nothing  is  more  im- 
portant to  all  the  people  than  that  the  schools  should  have 
the  best  teachers  who  can  be  secured,  whether  men  or  women. 
Those  who  object  to  equality  talk  about  the  way  the  money 
is  spent,  the  men  usually  being  married  and  the  women  not, 
but  such  a  paternal  ground  for  fixing  salaries  hardly  requires 
an  answer  A  deeper  argument  is  that,  in  a  region  like  New 
York,  if  money  is  spent  in  raising  salaries  it  will  not  be  spent 
on  sorely  needed  buildings  and  increase  of  teaching  force.  This 
objection  may  be  valid  for  the  moment,  but  only  for  the  mo- 
ment. It  does  not  touch  the  final  principle,  and  the  just  prin- 
ciple should  be  in  some  way  recognized  and  established,  even 
if  the  full  effect  must  be  unfortunately  postponed. — Collier's, 
February  22,  1908. 

THE    SCHOOLMARM 

New  York's  12,000  women  teachers  have  no  votes,  and  there- 
in doubtless  they  are  "  inferior "  to  the  200<\  men  teachers. 
Therein,  doubtless,  lies  a  part  of  their  inability  to  get  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  from  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the 
manifest  difficulty  of  their  cause  before  the  legislature.  Their 
appeal  is  to  the  generosity  and  justice  of  the  city,  not  to  any- 
body's   political    interest. 

The  people  should  realize  the  injustice  of  the  presumption 
which  underlies  a  system  that  starts  a  woman  teacher  in  at 
$600  and  a  man  teacher  at  $900,  and  raises  the  woman's  pay 
$40  a  year  and  the  man's  pay  $105.  It  is  assumed  that  the  wo- 
man teacher  is  a  bird  of  passage — a  schoolmarm  one  day  and 
a  blushing  bride  the  next,  while  the  man  teacher  will  be  on  the 
job  for  life.  But  it  is  very  much  the  other  way.  Many  women 
are  electing  school  teaching  as  a  permanent  vocation.  Most 
of  the  veteran  teachers  whose  former  pupils  gather  from  time 
to  time  to  do  them  honor  are  women. 

Men  make  teaching  a  crutch  at  least  as  much  as  women  do. 
They  pursue  their  studies  for  the  law  and  other  professions, 
and  meanwhile  boil  the  pot  by  teaching.  The  initial  inequality 
between  the  pay  of  men  and  women  is  deepened  by  the  fact 
that  many  day  teachers  also  teach  in  the  night  schools.  With 
less  endurance  than  men,  and  under  a  social  scruple  or  danger 
that  makes  it  unwise  for  them  to  undertake  a  night  school  in 
some  parts  of  the  city,  women  have  this  additional  means  of 
livelihood  largely  withdrawn  from  them. 

While  the  compensation  of  all  other  classes  of  city  employees 
is  being  raised,  the  woman  teacher,  who  belongs  to  no  political 
club,  whose  guiding  principles  are  efficiency  and  the  devoted 
care  of  her  charges  rather  than  influence,  is  passed  by.  She 
is  ground  between   the   upper   and   nether   millstone   of  an  in- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         451 

equitable  and  insufficient  salary  and  the  increased  cost  of  liv- 
ing. Give  the  schoolmarm  a  square  deal!  As  the  chosen 
guardian  of  the  rising  generation  she  has  a  better  title  to  it 
than  anyone  else. — The  Evening  Mail,  Thursday,  March  7,   1907. 

The  dinner  of  the  school  teachers  last  Satiirday  night  was  a 
most  enlightening  affair.  It  ought  to  have  taught  the  few  men 
present  that  the  women  are  filling  a  place  in  the  concerns  of 
this  country,  little  dreamt  of  a  few  years  ago.  When  the  Civil 
War  called  the  men  of  the  North  to  battle  there  were  not  men 
enough  to  do  the  work  at  home.  Every  industry  languished 
for  the  lack  of  men,  and  women  were  called  upon  to  take  their 
places.  The  call  was  promptly  heeded,  and  women  appeared 
laboring  in  places  where  no  man  ever  thought  to  see  them. 
They  were  joyfully  welcomed,  and  by  their  conduct,  their  thrift, 
and  their  competence,  won  from  the  American  man  that  degree 
of  homage  that  has  set  him  above  all  of  the  men  of  other  na- 
tions; in  his  respect  for  women.  And  the  most  important  work 
done  by  women  at  that  time  was  in  public  schools.  Did  they 
do  their  work  well  or  ill?  Incompetence  cannot  thrive.  The 
spirit  of  humanity  will  not  submit  to  costly  and  worthless  ex- 
periments. If  the  women  had  not  proved  themselves  capable 
of  teaching  children  they  would  long  ago  have  disappeared 
from  the  public  schools.  But  instead  of  disappearing  they  have 
waxed  in  numbers  and  in  usefulness. — Democracy,  May  i,  1909. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Men  Teachers  and  Principals'  Associa- 
tion held  a  week  ago,  Profesor  Shumway  made  an  effort  to 
show  that  women  teachers  should  not  receive  as  much  pay  as 
men  teachers  for  the  same  kind  of  work.  He  made  these 
points: 

"Wages  must  be  just  to  employer  and  employee;  that  wage 
is  just  when  sufficient  to  hold  efficient  labor;  that  it  should  be 
big  enough  to  give  the  worker  a  living  wage;  that  the  neces- 
sary masculine  wage  is  an  unnecessary  feminine  wage;  that  it 
would  be  unjust  to  women  to  give  them  enough  pay  to  make 
their  places  of  value  to  men,  for  then  they  would  be  driven  out 
of  the  schools;  that  if  women  succeed  in  driving  out  the  men 
then  they  would  have  no  call  to  raise  a  cry  for  the  equalizing  of 
pay  and  that  this  would  work  to  their  harm." 

it  seems  to  us  that  the  professor  has  entirely  missed  any 
good  reason  for  refusing  women  the  same  pay  as  that  given  to 
men  for  the  same  kind  of  work.  It  is  certain  that  women  are 
as  necessary  in  our  schools  as  the  men.  They  depend  upon 
each  other.  Without  the  women  there  could  be  no  proper 
basis  for  the  men  to  work  upon.  It  would  be  like  trying  to 
build  a  house  upon  the  shifting  sand.     Men  cannot  drive  wo- 


452         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

men  out  of  the  schools  and  women  cannot  drive  the  men  out. 
The  women  have  won  their  places  in  our  educational  system 
by  hard,  honest  and  competent  work.  The  question  of  a  living 
wage  doesn't  enter  into  the  matter  at  all,  if  the  professor  will 
excuse  us  for  saying  so.  There  is  no  sentiment  in  business,  and 
any  corporation,  municipal  or  otherwise,  that  seeks  to  do  busi- 
ness on  a  sentimental  basis  will  soon  have  a  receiver  in  charge 
of  his  affairs. 

What  is  the  market  price  of  labor?  That  is  the  only  ques- 
tion. In  the  matter  of  public  teaching  the  market  price  of 
teachers  is  fixed  by  the  public.  It  has  no  variable  quantity  be- 
cause it  depends  upon  a  monopoly.  Then  the  question  comes: 
What  is  the  value  of  this  labor  to  the  corporation?  In  this 
case  the  corporation  is  the  people  of  the  state;  and  the  people, 
represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly,  have  declared  that  the 
labor  performed  by  the  women  is  worth  as  much  as  the  same 
kind  of  labor  performed  by  the  men.  Wherefore  this  Is  the 
market  price  of  this  kind  of  labor  and  the  women  should  bene- 
fit by  this  decision. 

There  are  men  in  this  country  getting  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  Is  this  a  living  wage?  Of  course  it  is  much 
more  than  any  man  needs  to  live  upon,  but  he  gets  it  because 
that  is  the  market  price.  There  are  men  getting  seven  dollars 
a  week.  Is  this  a  living  wage?  No.  Yet  it  is  the  market 
price.  Who  has  set  the  market  price?  The  consumer.  And  so 
the  consumer  in  the  matter  of  the  women  school  teachers,  or 
in  other  words  the  people,  say  that  she  ought  to  get  the  same 
pay  as  men.  Then  the  professor  says  that  if  men  be  driven  out 
of  the  public  schools  the  women  could  not  get  more  pay  be- 
cause then  she  could  not  raise  the  cry  of  equal  pay.  How  can 
men  be  driven  out  because  women  have  their  pay  raised?  This 
statement  is  interesting  only  because  it  hasn't  any  foundation 
to  support  it.    It  is  a  phenomenon. 

Being  of  the  male  species  ourselves  we  do  not  want  to  think 
that  there  is  any  man  whose  livelihood  depends  upon  the  work 
of  under-paid  women.  And  so,  with  all  courtesy  to  the  pro- 
fessor, we  are  constrained  to  believe  that  he  is  wholly  mis- 
taken in  the  view  he  takes  and  we  desire  to  assure  him  that 
the  women  school  teachers  will  be  receiving  the  same  pay  as 
men  for  the  same  kind  of  work  before  he  or  we  are  eighteen 
months  older. — Democracy,  May  29,  1909. 

It  is  only  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  women  school  teach- 
ers have  won  their  fight  for  equal  pay.  The  battle  has  been 
fought  with  much  honor  and  courage  on  the  part  of  the  wo- 
men and  with  much  sycophancy,  dodging,  and  insincerity  on  the 
part  of  the  men  who  have  opposed  their  claim  for  fair  treat- 
meat.    It  is  an  axiom  to  say  that  in  the  end  right  will  prevail, 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         453 

but  right  very  often  has  a  mighty  hard  fight  of  it  before  it 
does  prevail.  Wrong  is  often  strong  and  many  fisted,  and  it 
is  often  aided  by  a  line  of  persons,  some  thick-witted,  some 
stubborn,  some  wicked,  some  blind,  who  battle  against  the 
right.  There  is  never  much  difficulty  in  convincing  the  clear- 
eyed  and  clear-brained  of  the  right,  but  when  it  comes  to  teach- 
ing the  stupid,  to  win  over  the  stubborn,  to  beat  the  wicked 
and  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  then  real  difficulties  are  met. 
If  the  women  school  teachers  had  a  weaker  cause,  less  courage, 
less  courtesy,  and  less  character,  they  would  have  despaired 
and  future  generations  of  teachers  would  have  suffered.  But 
they  had  every  one  of  the  qualities  that  make  for  success,  and 
so,  naturally,  they  succeed.  The  beginning  of  the  year  1910 
is  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  for  them.  It  will  see  the  women 
school  teachers  getting  the  same  pay  as  the  men  teachers  for 
the  same  kind  of  work;  it  will  see  the  women  school  teachers 
growing  in  numbers  and  efficiency;  it  will  see  a  marked  im- 
provement in  the  public  school  system,  and  it  will  see  a  big 
advance  toward  the  uplifting  of  the  poor.  The  fact  that  the 
women  school  teachers  have  had  to  fight  for  so  many  years 
for  justice  that  would  involve  an  additional  expenditure  of 
less  than  six  million  dollars  a  year,  while  many  men  in  public 
life  engaged  in  public  work  directly  and  indirectly,  become 
millionaires  in  a  few  years,  has  always  seemed  to  us  to  be  an 
alarming  symptom.  The  work  the  women  school  teachers 
do  is  the  most  important  work  done  by  any  of  the  public  em- 
ployees. Their  work  is  not  only  for  to-day  but  for  all  time. 
Its  effect  will  be  seen  when  every  person  living  now  will  have 
passed  away.  It  is  work  that  will  advance  the  nation  in  all 
of  the  sciences  and  arts,  and  in  the  deeper  things,  such  as  love 
of  country,  honesty,  good  living,  and  general  knowledge.  The 
meeting  of  the  teachers  last  night  was  a  good  indication  of 
the  appreciation  the  people  have  of  their  -fiork.— Democracy,  Dec. 
18,  1909, 

"JOURNAL"  EDITORIALS 

SALARIES  OF  WOMEN  THAT  TEACH  IN  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS 

What   Excuse   Is  There   For   Underpaying   Them? 
The  Legislature  Should  Repair  the  Injustice  I 

Women  that  teach  in  New  York's  public  schools  are  trying 
to  get  from  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  decent,  fair  treat- 
ment, and  they  ought  to  get  it. 

In  the  schools  the  first  thing  to  be  thought  of  is  the  children. 

If  children  taught  by  women  are  not  well  taught,  if  the  wo- 


454         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

men's  work  is  not  as  well  done  as  in  classes  governed  by  men, 
then  the  women  should  be  replaced  by  men. 

The  difficulty  in  getting  fair  treatment,  common  everyday 
justice,  for  the  women  teachers,  illustrates  the  general  un- 
willingness of  human  beings  to  accept  a  plain  truth. 

A  few  centuries  ago  everybody  thought  it  was  right  for  one 
human  being  to  own  another,  no  matter  what  his  color. 

Fifty  years  ago  in  this  country  we  thought  it  was  right  for 
one  human  being  to  own  another,  provided  the  slave  had  a 
black  skin,  or  a  black  ancestor  that  made  his  skin  yellow. 

It  seemed  then  proper  that  one  man  with  a  white  skin  should 
be  paid  for  his  work  properly,  and  another  man  with  a  black 
skin  paid  nothing  at  all — unless  with  a  whip. 

That  idea  we  have  dropped.  A  long  war,  which  cost  millions 
of  lives  and  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars,  drummed  into 
American  skulls  the  truth  that  it  doesn't  pay  to  keep  slaves, 
and  that  it  isn't  right. 

If  white  men  and  black  men  do  the  same  kind  of  work  now, 
we  give  them  the  same  kind  of  pay. 

It  is  too  bad  we  haven't  sense  of  justice  enough  to  do  the 
same  thing  for  women. 

Nobody  would  dream  of  saying  in  this  country,  "  I'll  pay  an 
Irishman  nine  cents,  and  a  German  eight  cents  for  the  same 
kind  of  work."     It  would  seem   ridiculous. 

Then  why  pay  a  male  human  being  two  dollars  and  a  female 
human  being  one  dollar  for  identical  work? 

If  men  can  do  the  school  work  better  than  the  women,  then 
men  only  should  be  employed,  in  justice  to  the  children. 

And  if  the  women  can  do  the  work  as  well  as  the  men,  and 
they  can,  unless  it  be  in  the  management  of  the  very  biggest 
and  roughest  boys,  then  the  women  should  be  paid  as  well  as 
the  men. — New  York  Evening  Journal  (Editorial). 

SENSELESS  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  TEACHERS' 
SALARY    BILL 

That  the  White  bill,  giving  equal  pay  for  equal  work  to  New 
York  teachers,  is  to  be  smothered  in  the  Assembly  was  a 
statement  made  and  applauded  at  the  meeting  of  men 
teachers  held  at  Terrace  Garden  Saturday.  The  cheering  of 
such  an  announcement  is  incomprehensible  to  the  average  man, 
but,  for  the  matter  of  that,  so  is  the  opposition  to  the  meas- 
ure. To  the  ordinary  chivalrous,  fair-minded  American,  the 
chief  principle  embodied  in  the  White  bill  is  one  of  simple 
justice,  and  the  fight  made  on  it  is  so  out  of  keeping  with  the 
spirit  of  to-day  that  it  has  in  it  an  element  of  barbarism. 

Is  compensation  given  for  sex  or  for  service  rendered?  If 
a  certain  piece  of  work  is  worth  a  certain  ampunt  of  money, 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         455 

does  it  matter  whether  the  one  who  does  the  work  is 
a  man  or  a  woman?  In  buying  a  bushel  of  wheat  or  a  loaf 
of  bread,  do  we  stop  to  inquire  as  to  the  sex  of  the  farmer  or 
baker?  If  any  distinction  is  made,  chivalry  would  suggest 
that  the  woman  should  be  favored.  To  discriminate  against 
her  simply  because  she  is  a  woman  is  not  only  unfair,  but  un- 
manly. 

There  was  one  gratifying  note  at  the  Terrace  Garden 
meeting.  It  was  the  promise  implied,  if  not  stated,  by  mem- 
bers of  the  board,  that  if  the  White  bill  is  killed  there  will  be 
an  advance  of  salaries  all  along  the  line.  Promises  are  good, 
even  if  given  only  in  hints  and  not  in  open,  manlike  state- 
ments. The  salaries  of  teachers  certainly  should  be  advanced, 
and  radically.  Yet  the  majority  of  people  would  prefer  legal 
enactments  to  that  effect  rather  than  vague  intimations  from 
a  body  that  has  had  power  to  make  such  an  increase  for  years, 
but  has  shown  little  desire  to  take  such  action  until  a  fight 
is  on  to  prevent  women  from  receiving  plain  justice. 

If  there  are  defects  in  the  White  bill  they  are  easily  cured 
by  amendment.  The  main  idea  is  of  enough  worth  that  it 
should  not  be  lost  because  of  minor  details.  For  this  principle 
of  equal  pay  for  equal  work  the  campaign  should  be  waged 
until  its  success  is  assured. — Journal,  1907. 

THE    EFFORT    TO    GET    FAIR    TREATMENT    FOR 
WOMEN  SCHOOL  TEACHERS 

It  Is  Honorable,  Necessary.    It  Should  Be  Persisted  In 

Last  year  a  determined  effort  was  made  by  women  who-  teach 
in  New  York  City's  public  schools  to  obtain  fair  treatment 
from  the  Legislature.  Their  demand  was  that  a  woman  able 
to  do  as  good  work  as  a  man  should  for  the  same  work  re- 
ceive the  same  pay  as  the  man.  This  newspaper  endeavored 
to  assist  the  teachers,  and  the  Legislature  decided  in  their 
favor.  Governor  Hughes,  however,  decided  against  the  teach- 
ers. 

Now  a  set  of  imposing  resolutions  has  been  adopted  by  the 
Board  of  Education  censuring  the  teachers  for  their  activity, 
which  is  called  pernicious.  An  especial  attack  is  made  upon 
Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  District  Superintendent  of  New  York 
City. 

The  Board  of  Education  is  much  grieved  because  it  thinks 
that  some  of  the  women  have  been  neglecting  their  duty. 

On  behalf  of  the  teachers  we  wish  to  tell  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation that  the  teachers  that  went  to  Albany  were  working 
in  the  best  interests  of  the  children,  of  all  the  people,  as  well 
as  of  the  teachers  themselves. 


456         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

As  for  the  attack  on  Miss  Straclian  personally,  that  is  pecul- 
iarly uncalled  for. 

Miss  Strachan  did  spend  thirty-four  days  in  hard  work  try- 
ing to  get  justice  for  the  teachers. 

And  Miss  Strachan  couldn't  possibly  have  made  a  cent  by 
the   passage  of  the   law  for  which   she  worked. 

Miss  Strachan  as  district  superintendent  was  not  included 
in  those  that  would  have  been  benefited  by  the  law.  She  was 
working  simply  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  help  other  teachers, 
and  to  help  the  city. 

In  addition.  Miss  Strachan  reported  every  day's  absence 
from  duty,  she  worked  overtime  and  at  night  to  make  up  for 
such  absence,  and  she  was  engaged,  as  she  herself  truly  said 
in  her  report  to  the  board,  "  in  a  cause  destined  to  uplift  the 
moral  standards  of  the  school  system,  and  hence  of  the  com- 
munity, the  State,  the  nation,  and  the  world — the  establishment 
of  justice  for  the  women  workers  in  our  public  schools." 

We  should  like  to  ask  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
tion  who  condemn  Miss  Strachan  and  the  other  teachers  how 
many  of  them  ever  worked  hard  for  thirty-four  days  to  help 
other  people;  how  many  of  them  ever  took  the  trouble  to  go 
to  Albany  day  after  day,  when  they  couldn't  possibly  make  a 
cent  by  doing  that,  and  when  all  the  satisfaction  they  could 
get  was  in  knowing  that  they  had  done  their  duty? 

NOT  ONLY  EQUAL  PAY  BUT  DECENT  PAY 
TO  TEACHERS 

Not  only  the  women  teachers  of  New  York,  but  the  schools 
are  entitled  to  congratulations  on  the  first  victory  for  the 
principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  The  fact  that  there  was 
but  one  vote  in  the  State  Senate  against  the  bill  giving  women 
the  same  salaries  as  men  teachers,  and  that  this  one  vote  was 
not  dictated  by  opposition  to  the  main  feature  of  the  measure, 
but  to  a  minor  proposition.  Hot  only  reflects  credit  on  the 
Senate,  but  makes  it  certain  that  the  bill  will  become  a  law. 
This  is  good  as  far  it  goes,  but  the  principle  should  be  ex- 
tended to  all  other  women  in  the  employ  of  the  city.  Salary 
should  be  deterrnined  by  the  character  of  the  position  and  not 
by  the  sex  of  the  occupant.  Discrimination  does  not  cease  to 
be  discriminatioa  because  practised  against  a  woman  or  against 
all  women.  Plain  and  simple  justice  is  not  a  matter  of  sex 
distinction. — Journal. 

WHY  THE  CITY  IS  TOO  POOR  TO  PAY  THE 
TEACHERS  FAIRLY 

The  school  teachers  of  this  city,  HOtoriously  underpaid,  asked 
the   Legislature  for  salaries   more   nearly   commensurate  with 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         457 

their  valuable  services.  The  Legislature  granted  their  request. 
The  Governor  vetoed  the  bill. 

The  teachers  next  applied  to  the  Board  of  Education,  which 
had   promised    to    "  do   something." 

Recently  a  member  of  that  Board  named  Jonas  had  this  to 
say: 

"  We  should  not  allow  a  single  increase  of  salary.  The  con- 
dition of  the  city's  finances  does  not  warrant  it.  The  Board 
of  Estimate  is  not  only  responsible,  but  it  will  be  called  to 
account  if  a  single  increase  of  salary  is  allowed." 

Exactly.  The  Board  of  Estimate  is  in  constant  terror  lest 
it  be  called  to  account  for  allowing  an  advance  of  teachers' 
salaries. 

Yet  it  summons  abundant  fortitude  wheH  it  wants  to  buy 
a  theatre  for  $230,000  and  sell  it  back  to  the  same  crowd  for 
$11,500.  It  has  plenty  of  courage  when  raising  the  salaries  of 
worthless  appointees  of  McClellan.  It  is  calm  and  imtroubled 
whea  passing  Bridge  terminal  deals  or  a  thousand  and  one 
other  operations  by  which  the  municipal  treasury  is  almost  daily 
looted. 

The  condition  of  the  city's  finances  does  not  warrant  giving 
fair  pay  to  school  teachers,  upon  whom  rests  the  gravest  and 
highest  responsibility  for  the  future  of  this  country. 

Yet  it  seems  to  warrant  every  sort  of  extravagance  an  ex- 
travagant  and   incompetent   administration   can   indulge   in. 

Even  at  a  time  when  the  credit  of  the  city  is  stretched  till 
it  crack?,  the  condition  of  its  finances  apparently  warrants 
throwing  away  $2,000,000  by  awarding  the  contract  for  the 
Ashokan  dam  to  the  highest  bidder  when  the  lowest  bidder  is 
a  man  of  proven  responsibility  and  experience. 

The  present  administration  has  made  many  promises  about 
what  it  was   going  to   do   for  the   schools. 

In  practice  it  has  denied  the  teachers  decent  pay,  deprived 
thousands  of  children  of  the  privilege  of  going  to  school  at 
all,  and  done  absolutely  nothing  adequately  to  increase  either 
the  capacity  or  the  efficiency  of  the  city's  educational  system. 

This  is  a  matter  that  appeals  directly  to  every  parent,  as  it 
should  to  every  citizen. 

Upon  the  school  children  of  to-day  depends  the  welfare  of 
the  city  to-morrow. 

Do  you  who  pay  taxes  prefer  to  have  your  money  spent  in 
fair  salaries  for  the  women  who  educate  your  children  or  in 
real   estate   deals   which   enrich   a   few   grafting  politicians? 

Do  you  think  that  a  Board  of  Estimate  which  can  smugly 
defend  the  Montauk  Theatre  deal  would  actually  have  any- 
thing to  fear  from  public  opinion  if  it  permitted  the  Board  of 
Education  to  make  the  schools  of  New  York  worthy  of  the 
greatest  city  in  the  world  }— Journal,  August,  1907. 


458         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


ONE   TRIUM'PH    FOR   "EQUAL   PAY" 

The  City  of  Buffalo  is  to  be  congratulated  upon  possessing 
the  sense  of  justice  and  decency  to  establish  the  principle  of 
"  equal  pay  for  equal  work,"  which  has  beea  denied  the  women 
teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York.  It  is  only  a  question  of 
time  when  American  fairness  and  chivalry  will  force  the  adop- 
tion of  this  measure  everywhere.  When  that  time  arrives  it 
will  be  no  slight  gratification  to  the  citizens  of  Buffalo  that 
they  were  among  the  pioneers  in  the  work,  just  as  it  will  be  a 
like  source  of  regret  to  the  people  of  Greater  New  York  that 
they  permitted  the  second  city  in  the  State  to  get  ahead  of 
them  in  bringing  about  this  inevitable  reform. 

The  case  is  even  worse  with  the  metropolis,  for  not  only 
did  its  city  government  throw  every  possible  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  the  Equal  Pay  bill,  but  refused  a  three-million-dollar 
appropriation  for  a  general  advance  of  teachers'  salaries.  There 
was  plenty  of  money  to  add  a  salary  grab  of  $116,000  in  the 
Comptroller's  office,  and  for  even  greater  extravagance  and 
graft  in  other  departments,  but  not  a  cent  to  furnish  a  decent 
wage  for  those  who  educate  the  young.  The  women  teachers 
cannot  vote  and  are  not  a  part  of  the  political  machine.  There- 
fore they  receive  scant  consideration  or  courtesy  from  the 
present   "Mayor"   of  this   city  and   his   associates. 

The  pluck  and  courage  shown  by  the  Interborough  Associa- 
tion of  Women  Teachers,  in  the  face  of  rebuffs  received  from 
the  Governor,  the  "  Mayor "  and  the  Comptroller,  will  arouse 
universal  admiration,  at  least  in  all  except  the  three  gentle- 
men named.  Not  only  do  the  members  refuse  to  recede  from 
their  demands,  but  they  propose  to  repeat  the  fight  by  which 
they  woa  the  Legislature  last  year.  It  is  not  exactly  compli- 
mentary to  modern  ideas  of  chivalry  that  men  leave  them  to 
make  this  fight  for  plain  justice. — New  York  Journal,  December 
7,  1907. 


PAY  TEACHERS  ACCORDING  TO  THEIR  VALUE 

They  Are  the  Most  Useful  of  Public  Servants,  and  It  Is  Not 
Only  Stupid  but  Infamous  to  Deny  Them  Justice 

Copyright,    1909,   by   "American-Journal-Examiner." 

There  is  no  more  important  duty  in  America  than  that  per- 
formed by  the  teachers  in  the  public  schools — the  manufactur- 
ing of  good  American  citizens  out  of  the  raw  material  of  good 
American  boys. 

The  future  of  the   republic  depends  on  the  success   of  the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         459 

teachers.  To  interfere  with  that  success  by  parsimony  is  noth- 
ing short  of  criminal. 

The  Mayor  of  New  York  now  has  under  advisement  the 
Equal  Pay  bill,  which  provides  that  the  women  in  the  schools 
of  this  city  shall  receive  the  same  pay  as  men  engaged  in  the 
same    work. 

To  veto  such  a  bill  would  be  to  give  notice  to  parents  that 
the  education  of  their  children  is  considered  of  small  impor- 
tance by  a  public  servant  who  is  taking  their  money  on  the 
pretense  of  looking  after  their  interests. 

The  Legislature  has  passed  the  bill.  If  vetoed  by  the  Mayor 
it  cannot  be  re-enacted  for  another  year.  In  the  meantime 
the  outrageous  injustice  to  the  women  teachers  will  continue — 
the  shame  of  grossly  underpaying  the  most  useful  of  all  public 
servants   will   remain   with   New   York   City. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  insure  the  future  greatness 
of  this  country  by  turning  out  young  men  and  young  women 
who  are  able  enough,  and  honest  enough,  and  patriotic  enough 
to  be   first-class   citizens. 

For  the  larger  part  of  every  week  day  the  future  citizens  are 
in  their  hands,  to  be  made  or  marred,  according  to  the  ability 
and   earnestness   of  the   teachers. 

Originally  parents  educated  their  own  children,  giving  the 
best  that  was  in  them  to  make  the  new  generation  wiser  and 
better  than  the  old. 

It  has  now  become  necessary  to  delegate  this  work  to  others. 

But  it  remains  the  greatest  work  of  civilization — more  im- 
portant than  any  other  art  or  profession — infinitely  more  useful 
to  the  republic  than  the  labors  of  the  doctor,  who  treats 
physical  ailments,  or  of  the  judge,  who  is  called  in  to  settle 
the  differences  of  opinion  that  arise  between  citizen  and  citizen. 

We  pay  our  judges  big  salaries,  and  vast  veneration,  and  use 
them  mostly  to  decide  disputes — chiefly  in  matters  of  money. 

We  pay  our  teachers  very  small  salaries,  and  use  them,  nine 
months  in  the  year,  to  shape  the  whole  course  of  human  prog- 
ress, through  their  direction  of  the  minds  of  those  who  are 
to  make  human  progress. 

The  shame  of  that  is  enough,  as  all  fair-minded  people  will 
admit.  The  machinist,  called  in  to  tinker  a  refractory  motor 
under  an  automobile,  is  paid  better  than  the  instructor  who 
cares  for  the  mind,  and,  incidentally,  the  soul  of  a  growing 
human  child. 

As  further  proof  of  callousness  to  the  even-handed  justice 
that  figures  so  often  in  public  oratory  and  so  seldom  anywhere 
else,  we  pay  men  teachers  far  better  than  women  teachers  for 
identically    the    same    work. 

Usually  the  women  do  their  work  better.  They  have  more 
sympathy,  more  undestanding  of  child  nature,  less  aptitude  to 


46o        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

become  swollen  with  importance  because  they  know  how  to 
read  and  to  spell  a  little  better  than  their  pupils. 

The  idea  of  public  schools,  free  to  the  children  of  rich  and 
poor,  was  the  idea  that  made  the  United  States  a  great  nation. 
American  schools  are  good — better  than  those  of  any  other 
country. 

But  they  can  be  made  better  still.  The  public  schools  should, 
in  fact,  be  made  so  good  that  no  parent,  however  rich  could 
afford  to  send  his  children  to  a  private  school. 

School  superintendents  should  be  men  of  as  much  ability  and 
fitness  for  their  positions  as  railroad  superintendents,  and 
should  receive  better  pay. 

School  teachers  should  be  the  best  paid  class  of  public  serv- 
ants, as  well  as  the  most  efficient. 

And  the  fact  that  the  work  that  they  have  been  doing  has 
been  under-valued  and  under-rewarded  for  so  long  is  all  the 
more  reason  that  it  should  be  recognized  and  adequately  paid 
now. 

It  will  be  time  to  talk  economy  when  some  legislature  passes 
a  bill  to  stop  waste  of  public  money  on  condemnation  jobs, 
the  gift  of  valuable  franchises  to  greedy  corporations,  the 
purchase  of  rotten  equipment  for  the  Fire  Department. 

Economy  aimed  at  impairing  the  efficiency  of  the  public 
schools  is  no  economy  at  all,  but  sheer  criminal  folly. 

Naturally  the  teachers  are  interested  in  the  bill.  They  have 
a  right  not  to  beg  for  justice,  but  demand  it. 

But  important  as  is  this  measure  to  the  teachers,  it  is  far 
more  important  to  every  citizen.  To  the  teacher  it  means  only 
a  fair  return  for  their  brains  and  time.  To  the  citizen  it  means 
raising  the  schools  toward  the  level  on  which  they  belong,  and 
declaring  publicly  that  the  people  of  New  York  care  as  much 
for  its  future  citizenship  as  they  do  for  the  future  of  the  corpo- 
rations that  are  seeking  to  grab  its  streets. — New  York  Evening 
Journal,  May  13,  1909. 


WRITTEN  FOR  THE  EVENING  JOURNAL  DEC.  8,  1909 

By  Dr.  C.  H.  Parkhurst 

Copyright,  1909,  by  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Journal  Pub.  Co. 

The  women  teachers  in  our  public  schools  are  again  ex- 
ploiting the  question  of  equal  pay  for  equality  (in  quantity  and 
quality)  of  service.  This  is  to  some  extent  a  part  of  the  great 
question  that  is  now  being  agitated  by  her  sex,  and  in  part  it 
is   a   question  by   itself. 

Assuming  that  a  piece  of  work  done  by  a  woman,  whether 
in  school  or  anywhere  else,  is  the  exact  equivalent,  in  every 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         461 

respect,  of  the  same  piece  of  work  done  by  a  man,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  the  abstract  justice  of  discriminating  between  the 
two  in  the  matter  of  compensatioM. 

THE  ONLY  QUESTION   IS  WHETHER  THEIR  DEMAND  IS  JUST 

If,  for  example,  a  man  receives  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per 
annum  for  a  given  amount  of  instruction  and  of  a  given  quality, 
and  a  woman  receives  fourteen  hundred  for  its  exact  duplicate, 
in  amount  and  quality,  either  he  receives  more  than  his  services 
are  worth  or  she  receives  less  than  they  are  worth;  and  if  she 
receives  less  than  they  are  worth  she  is  by  so  much  defrauded. 
It  appears  impossible  to  discover  means  by  which  any  different 
conclusion   can   be   arrived   at. 

It  is  not  a  question  whether  it  would  cost  six  million  dollars 
more  per  annum,  or  twelve  million,  to  meet  the  demand  of  the 
women  teachers.  The  only  question  is  whether  their  demand 
is  a  just  one.  If  the  people  of  the  city  at  large  understand 
the  ins  and  outs  of  the  problem,  they  will  not  willingly  be 
partners  to  any  dealing  with  these  women  that  is  not  a  just 
dealing. 

If  a  given  teacher's  service  is  worth  fifteen  hundred  dollars, 
the  disposition  of  the  town,  whatever  the  disposition  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  will  be  to  pay  it,  and  not  to  scale  down 
her  compensation  on  the  ground  of  her  sex.  Saying  nothing 
about  the  ungallantry  of  it,  it  is  inequitable. 

EVERY  PERSON,  EVERY   SERVICE,  EVERY  THING   HAS  ITS  VALUE 

Every  person,  every  service,  every  thing,  in  fact,  has  its 
value.  It  may  not  always  be  easy  to  determine  exactly  what 
that  value  is,  but,  once  determined,  a  consistent  price  should 
be  put  upon  it.  Granted  that  that  is  not  the  principle  upom 
which  compensations  are  ordinarily  determined,  custom  is  no 
excuse   for  injustice. 

Out  in  Pasadena  people  pay  for  their  electricity  three  cents 
for  each  kilowatt  hour,  and  the  manager  of  the  system  says: 
"  We  can  make  money  at  this  figure,  pay  interest  on  the 
bonds,  and  establish   a  sinking  fund." 

The  New  York  Edison  Company  charge  ten  cents  for  the 
same  service.  They  charge  it  because  they  can  get  it,  not  be- 
cause it  is  worth  it.  That  is  the  way  things  generally  go;  but 
because  it  is  usual  for  us  to  get  all  we  can  for  what  we  sell, 
and  to  pay  as  little  as  we  can  for  what  we  buy,  does  not 
justify  either  the  seller  or  tTie  buyer. 

If  the  city  is  so  poor  as  to  be  unable  to  pay  these  women 
teachers  all  they  are  worth,  that  is  one  thing,  and  under  those 
circumstances  the  fair  course  to  pursue  will  be  to  scale  down 


462         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the  salary  of  the  male  teachers  a  little  and  scale  up  that  of  the 
women  to  meet  it. 

But  if  the  town  has  the  needed  funds  at  command,  as  it  un- 
doubtedly has,  and  if  the  demand  of  the  women  is  just,  as  it 
is  claimed  to  be,  then  all  they  have  got  to  do  is  to  continue 
to  stand  squarely  on  the  justice  of  that  demand  and  eventually 
it  will  be  conceded  to  them,  and  the  more  gentle  and  refined 
the  persistency  with  which  they  press  their  claim  the  sooner 
the  concession  will  be  made.  There  are,  however,  two  very 
delicate  questions  involved,  and  which  require  to  be  settled 
in    advance. 

The  first  is  whether  the  women  teachers  are  not  already  re- 
ceiving all  that  their  services  are  worth.  It  seems  a  little 
ungracious  to  raise  that  inquiry,  but  it  is  being  raised,  and 
that,  too,  by  people  whose  judgment  is  to  be  respected.  Their 
sense  of  justice  would  certainly  (?)  make  them  as  unwilling 
to   receive  more  than  they  earn  as  to  receive  less. 

INCREASED  SALARIES  WILL  ATTRACT  BETTER  TEACHERS 

The  second  question  is  really  included  in  the  first,  and  is 
this — whether,  taking  the  whole  year  through,  there  is  not  that 
feature  of  their  physical  constitution  that  positively  prohibits 
that  uninterrupted  solidity  of  service  possible  to  be  rendered 
by   the    male. 

These  two  questions  are  propounded  only  for  the  purpose  of 
not  leaving  out  of  the  investigation  anything  that  is  suitable 
to  be  included  in  it. 

There  is  one  further  point  that  has  perhaps  not  suggested 
itself  to  the  teachers  who  are  demanding  an  increase  of  salary, 
which  is  this:  That  if  their  compensation  is  increased,  that 
increase  will  attract  to  the  service  a  class  of  teachers  cor- 
respondingly more  competent  than  those  that  are  employed 
here  at  present,  so  that  if  the  claim  that  is  now  urged  is  con- 
ceded, the  least  qualified  of  those  now  upon  the  force  will  nat- 
urally find  themselves  supplanted,  and  instead  of  obtaining  an 
addition  to  their  salary,  will  lose  all  that  they  now  have. 

C.  H.  PARKHURST. 

DR.  PARKHURST  AND  THE   EQUAL   PAY   QUESTION 

Miss  Strachan,  President  of  the  Interboro  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion, Replies  to  the  Article  by  Dr.  Parkhurst  Published  in  the 
Last  Column  of  This  Paper. 

Copyright,  1909,  by  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Journal  Pub.  Co. 

Dr.  Parkhurst  writes  to-day  on  the  question  as  to  equal  pay 
for   women   teachers.     The   Evening  Journal   believes   that   the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         463 

city  should  set  an  example  in  common  justice  and  honesty  and 
pay  the  women  for  equal  service  as  the  men  are  paid.  This 
will  be  better  for  the  women  and  better  for  the  men  as  well, 
although  some  of  the  men  do  not  know  it.  We  publish  Dr. 
Parkhurst's  extremely  thoughtful  and  judicial  article  and  pre- 
sent here  the  view  of  the  women  teachers  presented  by  Miss 
Strachan: 

BY   MISS  GRACE  C    STRACHAN 

Dr.  Parkhurst  in  his  article  raises  only  two  points  that  can 
be  discussed  as  having  any  bearing  on  the  question  of  whether 
or  not  women  teaching  in  our  public  schools  should  receive 
equal  pay  with  the  men  teachers. 

In  regard  to  the  question  of  the  women  teachers  being  over- 
paid, I  want  to  say  that  in  order  to  be  a  teacher  nowadays 
one  first  must  have  been  graduated  from  a  four  years'  course 
in  a  high  school,  and  after  having  taken  a  two  years'  course 
in  a  training  school  for  teachers,  must  have  passed  a  very 
difficult  examination  for  a  license. 

These  requirements  have  raised  the  average  age  of  the 
teacher  at  the  beginning  of  her  service  to  twenty-one  years. 
The  day  has  entirely  gone  when  girls  could  begin  to  teach  in 
the  public  schools  of  our  city  at  the  ages  of  fourteen,  fifteen 
and  sixteen.  Yet  our  teachers  receive  the  munificent  salary 
in  the  first  year  of  $600.  This  amount  is  increased  annually, 
if  the  teacher  stands  well  in  the  various  examinations,  by  $40 
a  year  for  sixteen  years.  At  this  rate  a  woman  is  thirty- 
eight  years  of  age,  who,  continuing  to  teach  in  the  public 
schools,  receives  $1,240  a  year. 

I  believe  that  a  study  of  the  City  Record  for  June  last  will 
show  that  women  telephone  operators  employed  by  the  city 
received  as  much  as  $1,300  a  year,  and  that  women  stenographers 
received  salaries  ranging  from  $600  to  $2,400  a  year,  the  majority 
of  them  receiving  from  $1,200  to  $1,500. 

In  order  to  obtain  these  positions,  these  girls  have  to  fulfill 
no  other  requirement  than  the  Civil  Service  age  requirement 
of  at  least  eighteen  years,  and  a  simple  educational  test.  They 
may  never  have  attended  school  beyond  the  fifth  year  of  our 
elementary  course. 

Even  the  matrons  in  the  various  stations  throughout  the 
city  receive  $750  a  year. 

Besides,  the  women  teachers  feel  that  the  question  whether 
they  are  receiving  more  money  than  they  are  worth  is  not  a 
valid  subject  for  discussion  in  this  campaign  for  equal  pay, 
because  the  male  teachers  occupying  identical  positions  are 
receiving  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  per  cent,  more  than  the  wo- 
men  teachers,   yet   the   same   men   teachers   are   besieging   the 


464         EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Board  of  Education,  the  Charter  Revision  Committee  and  the 
Charter  Legislative  Committe  for  more  pay. 

In  answer  to  the  second  question,  I  have  no  long  list  of 
statistics  to  ofifer  to  prove  that  women  are  as  constant  in 
attendance  as   the   male  teachers. 

I  can  only  say  that  in  my  own  case  I  was  absent  only  two 
days  out  of  the  first  twelve  years  of  my  teaching,  and  that 
absence  was  due  to  a  combination  of  grip  and  toothache.  I 
know  another  teacher  who  was  not  absent  or  late  once  in  her 
first    seventeen    years    of    teaching. 

In  my  capacity  of  district  superintendent,  when  examining 
teachers  for  a  renewal  of  license,  or  for  a  certificate  of  approval 
of  service,  I  always  ask  this   question: 

"  How  often  have  you  been  late  or  absent  from  school  in 
the  past  three  years?" 

And  it  is  not  at  all  unusual  for  me  to  receive  the  answer: 

"Not  once." 

I  am  sure  that  there  is  no  department  of  the  public  service 
where  the  employees  render  such  faithful  attendance  as  the 
women  teachers  do  in  the  public  school  system  of  the  greater 
city. 

OUT-OF-TOWN   EDITORIALS 

No  doubt  the  fact  that  as  a  rule  the  teachers  of  the  com- 
mon schools  are  underpaid  and  that  the  salaries  doled  out  to 
women  have  been  so  low  as  to  offer  small  temptation  to  male 
competition  has  had  much  to  do  with  bringing  about  the  pre- 
ponderance of  women  teachers.  But  it  is  certain  that  it  is  not 
an  unhealthy  preponderance.  The  most  unsatisfactory  feature 
of  the  employment  of  women  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  very 
few  enter  upon  the  profession  of  teaching  as  a  permanent  oc- 
cupation. The  disparity  in  wages  of  the  sexes  is  altogether 
wrong.  For  the  like  service  there  should  be  the  like  pay,  and 
no  female  wageworker  in  any  field  of  endeavor  more  honestly 
earns  her  pay  than  the  teacher. — Philadelphia  Record,  1907. 

PAY  FOR  SERVICE  RENDERED 

In  New  York  equal  pay  for  teachers  has  long  been  agitated. 
Governor  Hughes  stands  in  the  way,  but  the  women  expect 
to  triumph  despite  his  opposition.  Naturally,  such  a  question 
has  brought  out  many  conflicting  opinions.  Whether  a  teacher 
has  to  support  one  person  with  his  or  her  earnings  or  half  a 
dozen  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  question.  What  the 
taxpayers  want  are  the  best  teachers  that  can  be  obtained, 
whether  men  or  women.  School  boards  should  make  no 
distinction  based  either  on  sex  or  the  number  of  teachers'  de- 
pendent  relatives.    If  the   teacher   engaged   fills   the   bill   that 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK        465 

teacher,  whether  man  or  woman,  should  be  paid  all  that  the 
taxpayers  of  the  employing  community  are  able  to  pay  for 
such  services.  So  far  as  teachers  are  concerned  the  public 
should  never  be  a  charitable  institution. — San  Francisco 
Bulletin. 

The  proposition  for  equal  pay  for  men  and  women  teachers 
has  again  failed  in  New  York.  A  fellow  writes  to  one  of  the 
papers  suggesting  that  the  next  effort  at  equalization  of  teach- 
ers' pay  be  made  by  going  after  the  pay  of  the  men  teachers 
in  the  hope  of  slicing  it  down  to  the  figure  paid  the  women 
teachers.  There  are  more  ways  than  one  of  going  at  a  subject 
to  bring  about  the  desired  end.  That  man  understands  how 
to  enlist  support  for  the  movement  to  raise  the  womea  teach- 
ers* pay. — Vindicator,  Youngstown,  Ohio,  May  19,  1909. 


EDUCATIONAL    COMMENT 

Equal  Pay. — It  has  been  left  for  the  New  York  teacher  to 
contend  for  a  principle  of  momentous  importance  to  the  entire 
working  world  of  the  public  service,  a  principle  as  certain  to 
redress  the  wrongs  of  the  men  who  work  as  to  remedy  the  in- 
justices to  the  women. 

It  was  left  for  the  New  York  schoolma'ams  to  take  up  the 
fight  for  equal  pay  and  to  protest  against  this  short-sighted 
lowering  of  the  standard  of  the  public  service,  and  official 
branding  of  woman's  labor  as  cheap  labor.  For  if  there  is  to 
be  sex  discrimination  in  labor,  even  to  the  statute  books,  the 
temporary  competition  of  women  workers  in  new  fields  who 
lower  the  rate  of  wage  throughout  the  labor  market  will  become 
a  fixed  and  persistent  condition.  Every  cry  for  more  economy 
in  the  schools,  in  the  public  service  everywhere,  and  in  the 
industries  will  result  in  driving  out  more  men  workers  and  in- 
stalling more  women  in  their  place.  This  has  already  been  the 
case  in  the  schools. 

Sex  discrimination  in  labor  is  a  boomerang  that  rebounds  to 
the  injury  of  those  who  launch  it  forth.  As  related  to  the 
schools,  if  we  are  "feminizing"  our  schools,  as  has  been 
charged,  and  if  the  schoolmaster  abroad,  who  was  so  great  an 
institution  in  the  first  century  or  so  of  American  national  life, 
has  well-nigh  disappeared,  his  elimination  has  been  largely  due 
to  the  economy  of  women's  labor.  However  cheap  women's 
labor  in  the  school  may  be  in  its  money  value,  it  is  good  labor 
and  of  high  educational  value;  and  the  better  it  is  and  the 
higher  its  quality  the  stronger  the  argument  for  equal  pay  for 
it  as  a  matter  of  justice  to  the  men  as  well  as  to  the  womea.— 
Albany  Argus,  November  7,  1907. 


466         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 


TEACHERS'  WAGES 

Steadily  the  demand  for  uniform  wages  for  teachers,  male 
and  female,  is  gaining  ground,  despite  the  fact  that  it  has  re- 
ceived temporary  setbacks  here  and  there.  It  is  generally 
known,  we  believe,  that  "  The  Citizen  "  is  no  advocate  of  woman 
suffrage;  it  subscribes  nothing  to  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights 
in  all  things,  but  it  has  always  declared  that  where  a  woman 
does  a  man's  work,  she  should  receive  a  man's  pay.  We  fully 
believe  with  Elbert  Hubbard  that: 

"  The  one-price  system  is  a  matter  of  ethics.  It  has  come 
to  stay.  We  also  believe  in  paying  a  like  wage  for  a  similar 
service. 

"This  question  has  come  to  Albany  for  legal  decision:  Shall 
not  women  teachers  be  paid  the  same  as  men  for  doing  the 
same  grade  and  quality  of  work?  Most  of  the  states  in  the 
union  have  not  even  dared  bring  it  up. 

"  If  we  were  having  our  first  look  at  the  question  we  would 
say  it  was  too  childish  a  matter  for  consideration — there  is  only 
one  side  to  it.  In  a  hundred  years  it  will  be  ridiculed  as  a  relic 
of  barbarism.  But  to-day  it  is  a  fight  that  must  be  decided  by 
the  legislature  and  an  executive. 

"  When  woman  began  to  teach,  to  earn  a  little  money  and 
have  a  degree  of  independence,  it  was  so  great  a  joy  that  she 
accepted  the  gift  of  the  gods  without  question  as  to  whether 
she  were  receiving  all  that  was  her  due.  She  had  nothing  to 
measure  up  her  present  condition  with  but  her  past,  and  all  was 
favorable. 

"  But  as  the  years  went  by  and  doors  great  and  small  flew 
open  at  her  touch  she  drew  points  of  comparison  and  the  in- 
justice of  man's  drawing  the  line  where  God  had  not,  worked 
into  her  heart. 

"  At  first  woman  was  given  only  the  less  responsible  positions 
in  teaching.  Now  she  is  a  co-worker  with  man — co-ordinates 
him. 

"And  I  have  seen  no  argument  brought  forward  by  the  male 
teacher  that  touched  upon  the  justice  of  paying  one  human 
being  more  than  another  for  the  same  effort  and  the  same  re- 
sults. The  men  have  ostensibly  fallen  back  on  Bobby  Burns 
and  i'ween  i'faith,  'A  mon's  a  mon  for  a*  that.'" — Atlanta 
Citizen. 

"EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL  WORK" 

Once  more  the  cry  for  more  pay  has  been  raised  in  New  York 
by  the  female  teachers  in  the  public  schools.    These  very  unreason- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         467 

able  persons  say  that  when  they  do  identically  the  same  work  that 
men  do  they  ought  to  receive  equal  pay.  A  whole  lot  of  people 
throughout  the  State  will  sympathize  with  them  in  their  claims. 
There  is  really  no  convincing  argument  against  the  contention 
except  the  financial  one,  "  We  cant  afford  it."  A  great  city  which 
is  teaching  its  young  the  great  lessons  of  justice  and  fair  play  can 
hardly  afford  to  set  the  example  of  lowering  womanhood.  In  a 
free-for-all  foot  race  where  women  and  men  were  admitted  there 
would  be  no  question  about  awarding  the  whole  prize  to  the  woman 
in  the  case  if  she  happened  to  win  the  race.  And  there  is  no  reason 
why  the  woman  who  does  effectual  work  in  instilling  knowledge 
into  the  minds  of  the  young  should  not  receive  just  as  much  as 
the  man  who  has  been  doing  the  same  work,  and  in  many  instances 
probably  not  as  well  as  the  woman.  To  be  sure  the  Governor  has 
vetoed  one  bill  which  provided  for  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  but 
if  New  York  shows  a  disposition  to  be  fair  and  treat  its  employees 
with  justice  it  is  hardly  probable  the  State  Executive  will  interfere. 
It  might  be  a  good  idea  for  the  city  to  use  the  money  which  has 
been  paid  to  the  fellows  with  easy  jobs  toward  rewarding  the 
teachers  of  the  public  schools  who  are  accomplishing  something. 
There  may  be  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  desirability  of  giving 
the  woman  the  ballot,  but  there  can  be  no  just  ground  for  offering 
a  man  $900  for  doing  certain  specific  things  and  a  woman  only 
$600  for  doing  the  same  things  and  doing  them  just  as  well. — 
Rochester  Union  and  Advertiser,  Feb.  4,  1910. 

"  EQUAL  SALARY  "  BILL 

The  persistent  fight  made  last  year  in  the  Legislature  by  the 
women  teachers  of  New  York  city  was  not  in  vain.  If  it  did  noth- 
ing else,  it  has  focused  the  attention  of  the  people  upon  the  in- 
equality of  salaries  paid  to  men  and  women  teachers.  We  believe 
it  will  do  more  than  that.  We  believe  it  was  the  entering  wedge, 
the  leaven  that  shall  in  time  make  for  better  conditions  and  better 
pay  for  the  whole  teaching  staff  of  the  State.  It  cannot  possibly 
be  otherwise.  That  is,  if  school  boards  and  authorities  have  the 
intelligence  we  believe  they  have.  Woman  is  no  longer  a  slave 
or  a  plaything.  Here  in  America  she  is  treated  as  an  equal  in 
nearly  all  respects  to  man.  In  some  cases,  however,  especially  in 
the  line  of  endeavor  to  battle  with  the  world  and  earn  her  own 
living,  the  idea  is  still  clung  to  that  she  is  inferior  and  therefore 
should  receive  an  inferior  salary.  This  idea  is  gradually  wearing 
away.  And  nothing  will  hasten  it  more  than  united  effort  on  their 
part — effort  such  as  the  Interborough  Teachers'  Association  made 
at  Albany  last  year.  Knowing  they  are  right,  they  should  rush  on 
to  the  goal  of  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work." — The  Dutchess  County 
Democrat  and  People's  Plain  Spokesman,  January  18,  1908. 


468         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

ALL    EYES    NOW    ON    SENATOR    WHITE'S    BILL 

"Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work"  Measure  up  for  Action 

The  Onondaga  Representative  will  Move  the  Passage  of  His  Pet 
Bill  this  Week — It  Seems  Certain  the  Senate  will  Pass  It 

Albany,  March  23. — Senator  Horace  White  will  move  the  passage 
of  the  New  York  city  school  teachers'  "  Equal  Pay  "  bill  this  week, 
and  from  a  poll  made  of  the  Senate  last  week  the  indications  are 
that  it  will  pass  by  a  very  comfortable  majority.  Only  five  votes 
were  cast  against  it  last  year  in  the  Upper  House.  The  passing 
of  a  resolution  by  the  New  York  city  Board  of  Aldermen  last 
week  favoring  the  passage  of  the  bill  has  strengthened  the  teachers' 
cause  among  many  Senators  and  Assemblymen  who  have  heretofore 
been  classed  as  "  doubtful." 

No  bill  that  has  come  up  before  the  Legislature  in  recent  years 
has  been  subject  to  so  much' public  discussion  on  the  platform  and 
in  the  press  as  the  "  Equal  Pay  "  bill.  It  has  been  discussed  from 
one  end  of  the  State  to  the  other.  Chambers  of  Commerce,  Boards 
of  Trade,  women's  clubs,  men's  clubs,  labor  organizations,  school 
teachers'  clubs  and  even  in  the  Grange  the  question  of  "  equal  pay 
for  equal  work"  has  been  the  subject  of  public  discussions,  espe- 
cially in  New  York  and  Brooklyn. 

"  The  White  Bill "  once  passed  the  Senate  and  House,  but  did 
not  pass  the  Governor.  A  well  founded  rumor  has  been  in  circula- 
tion in  Albany  for  several  weeks  that  the  Governor  has  quietly 
told  his  friends  that  he  does  not  want  Senator  White's  bill  put  up 
to  him  again.    The  reason  is  very  plain. 

Ever  since  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers, 
led  by  Miss  Grace  C.  Strachan,  began  the  fight  for  "  Equal  Pay 
for  Equal  Work  "  the  Governor  and  the  Senators  and  Assemblymen 
have  been  bombarded  with  requests  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  the 
women  teachers  who  have  been  so  unjustly  discriminated  against 
by  the  New  York  city  Board  of  Education.  From  Chancellor 
James  R.  Day  of  Syracuse  University  down  to  the  humblest  citizen 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  the  capitol  has  been  flooded  with 
petitions  to  help  the  women  teachers.  The  bill  has  been  strongly 
endorsed  in  every  city  from  Long  Island  to  Dunkirk  and  from 
Ogdensburg  to  Elmira. 

The  friends  of  Governor  Hughes  intimate  that  he  hesitates  this 
year  at  flying  in  the  face  of  public  opinion  by  vetoing  Senator 
White's  bill.  A  veto  in  a  Presidential  campaign  that  will  be  at 
fever  heat  about  the  time  that  all  thirty-day  bills  have  to  be  signed 
or  allowed  to  become  laws  would  work  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
Governor,  say  his  friends,  and  those  who  are  close  to  him  are 
working  hard  to  prevent  the  bill  from  reaching  him.  Failing  in 
that  they  will  advise  him  to  allow  it  to  become  a  law  in  view  of 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         469 

the  fact  that  so  many  prominent  men  and  women  in  Greater  New 
York  and  elsewhere  have  petitioned  for  the  signing  of  the  "  White 
Bill."  Among  the  hundreds  of  organizations  outside  of  Greater 
New  York  that  have  asked  the  Governor  to  sign  the  bill  are  the 
New  York  State  Wlorkingmen's  Federation  of  Labor,  the  New 
York  State  Locomotive  Enginemen  and  Firemen  and  the  Trades 
Assemblies  in  Rochester,  Syracuse,  Elmira,  Troy,  Albany,  Utica, 
Yonkers,  Poughkeepsie,  Jamestown,  Binghamton,  Schenectady  and 
other  cities. 

Those  who  are  closely  following  the  movements  of  Senator 
White's  pet  bill  say  that  it  has  a  better  chance  of  becoming  a 
law  this  year  than  it  did  last.  One  who  has  been  instrumental 
in  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  "  Equal  Pay "  bill  said  to-day  that 
there  is  more  inside  politics  being  played  in  behalf  of  this  measure 
than  thought. — Utica  Observer,  March  23,  1908. 

TEACHERS  FIGHTING  FOR  GOOD  CAUSE 

With  right  and  justice  behind  them,  the  women  teachers  of 
Greater  New  York  are  again  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  Senate 
and  Assembly  and  also  at  the  door  of  Governor  Hughes  for  their 
"  Equal  Salary"  bill.  The  Governor  last  year  put  this  question 
up  to  the  New  York  City  Board  of  Education,  but  the  board  has 
taken  no  notice  as  yet  of  the  Governor's  words  and  it  would  seem 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  and  the  Governor  to  compel 
the  board  to  pay  the  women  teachers  the  same  salaries  as  are  paid 
to  the  men,  as  both  are  doing  the  same  class  of  work — Editorial 
Plattsburgh  Republican,  February  8,  1908. 

NOT  BENEVOLENT 

The  public  schools  are  not  an  eleemosynary  institution.  They 
are  not  to  be  administered  as  public  benevolence.  They  are  a  part 
of  the  regulated  machinery  of  the  community,  and  any  disposition 
to  treat  them  as  benevolent  factors  is  a  perversion  of  the  fact  and 
intention,  as  well  as  the  conditions  of  support  of  the  schools.— 
Baltimore  American. 

EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL  WORK 

Certain  periods  in  the  world's  history  are  referred  to  as  "Dark 
Ages."  When  one  reflects  on  the  present  inequality  of  men  and 
women  in  political  and  industrial  life,  the  historians  of  the  future 
will  probably  characterize  the  century  now  passing  as  the  "  Age  of 
Injustice." 

The  spirit  of  American  rights  is  proclaimed  in  the  magnificent 
protest,  which  says:  "Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny." 
Yet  the  majority  of  American  women  pay  taxes  without  repre- 


470         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

sentation,   and  women  can   be  hanged  by  laws  in  the  making  of 
which  they  have  no  voice. 

Wherever  women,  as  a  class,  are  degraded  in  political,  industrial 
or  social  life  the  men  have  a  correspondingly  low  standard.  There- 
fore the  contention  for  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work  "  will  be  the 
great  factor  for  a  better  industrial  condition  for  men,  for  where 
women's  wages  are  low  the  men  are  correspondingly  poorly  paid. 

This  question  of  "  Equal  Pay  for  Men  and  Women  Teachers  " 
was  defeated  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  New  York  board  of  edu- 
cation held  this  week.  The  vote  was  23  to  16,  against  the  measure. 
Fifteen  men  and  one  woman  voted  in  favor  of  it.  Twenty  men 
and  three  women  voted  against  it. 

Mr.  Stern  said  to  equalize  the  women's  pay  would  cost  the  city 
from  $7,000,000  to  $11,000,000  annually.  Admitted  that  this  is  a 
very  large  increase,  but  if  it  was  an  increase  for  men  would  it  not 
be  considered?  Then  why  should  men  in  the  same  grades  in  the 
schools  doing  exactly  the  same  work,  often  not  as  good,  receive  a 
much  larger  salary  than  women  do?  If  economy  is  the  slogan, 
make  the  pay  equal,  regardless  of  sex. 

Mr.  Martin  said :  "  The  schedule  prepared  by  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  should  be  called  not  '  equal  pay 
for  equal  work '  but  '  equal  pay  for  equal  age,'  as  it  based  its 
increase  on  length  of  service."  The  Interborough  Association  of 
Teachers  should  realize  the  value  of  experience  in  dealing  with 
children,  and  also  the  fact  that  the  teachers  recognize  that  time 
brings  knowledge  and  matures  the  mind.  This  certainly  should  not 
militate  against  the  teachers'  graded  scale,  but  rather  it  should 
be  a  recognized  tribute  to  their  sense  of  justice.  Evidently  Mr. 
Martin  is  not  logical.  Moreover  the  graduate  scale  is  not  the  whole 
contention,  but  the  fact  that  the  men  in  the  same  grades  are  re- 
ceiving much  larger  salaries  than  are  the  women  for  the  same 
work,  and  the  question  is  "Why?" 

Again  Mr.  Martin  said  "  that  these  teachers  take  the  attitude  that 
we  (the  board  of  education)  must  give  it  to  them."  Why  not? 
Is  not  that  the  exact  attitude  that  was  assumed  by  our  Revolution- 
ary ancestors  in  their  appeal  to  England?  It  was  very  eflfective, 
and  the  present  one  will  prove  to  be  equally  so. 

Commissioner  Barrett  said  "  the  fact  that  one-twelfth  of  the 
teachers  receive  a  certain  salary  is  not  a  good  reason  that  the 
other  eleven-twelfths  should  receive  the  same  salary."  If  they  do 
exactly  the  same  work,  why  should  they  not  receive  the  same  salary? 

When  Mayor  McClellan  appointed  three  women  on  the  board  of 
education  last  fall,  many  thought  the  millennium  for  women  had 
arrived.  While  appreciative  of  the  ex-mayor's  act  in  recognizing 
women,  many  deplored  the  fact  that  three  society  women  who 
never  knew  what  it  was  to  need  or  earn  a  dollar,  had  been  selected 
to  represent  15,000  teachers,  who  are  engaged  daily  in  the  most 
difficult  work  of  disciplining  and  educating  about  50  children  each 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         \yi 

crowded  in  one  room.  These  children  represent  all  classes  in 
the  community,  possess  all  degrees  of  ability  and  lack  of  it,  and 
have  a  variety  of  temperaments  and  diflferent  degrees  of  morality. 
These  teachers  meet  all  conditions  at  least  five  hours  each  day  in 
school,  and  when  one  considers  the  price  of  food  and  the  number 
often  depending  upon  them  for  support,  it  is  conceivable  that  they 
sometimes  lack  the  comforts  of  life  to  which  they  are  entitled. 
That  even  one  woman  member  of  the  New  York  board  of  educa- 
tion, Mrs.  Christine  Towns,  voted  for  equal  pay  is  to  her  credit, 
and  she  is  to  be  congratulated. 

The  great  need  in  industrial  success  is  the  unity  of  interests  of 
men  and  women.  It  is  one  of  the  enigmas  of  modem  life  that 
the  literal  striking  of  a  woman  would  brand  the  offender  as  a 
social  outcast,  while  in  an  economic  way,  the  deadliest  blows  may 
be  struck  at  her  with  impunity,  while  it  is  a  fact  that  no  class 
in  the  community  is  a  greater  barrier  to  better  industrial  condi- 
tions for  men  than  are  the  women  who  do  not  believe  in  "  equal 
pay  for  equal  work." 

EQUAL  PAY  FOR  WOMEN 

The  New  York  board  of  education  has  just  rejected  the  plea  of 
the  women  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  that  city  for  equal 
pay  for  equal  work,  as  compared  with  men.  The  justice  of  this 
demand  by  the  women  teachers  is  readily  apparent;  but  their  case 
is  no  exception  to  the  rule  in  the  public  school  system  of  the 
country.  Women  teachers  rarely  in  any  city  or  state  get  the  same 
salary  for  the  same  work,  often  done  very  much  better  than  men 
teachers  perform  it 

The  wisdom  of  women  competing  with  men  in  some  walks  of 
professional  life  may  well  be  disputed,  but  in  the  school  room  there 
is  work  to  be  done  which  women  are  pecularly  well  fitted  to  per- 
form. Even  here  there  are  duties  which  cannot  be  best  discharged 
by  women,  but  these  are  exceptional.  In  the  graded  schools  of 
the  country  the  great  majority  of  the  teachers  are  women,  and  the 
faculties  of  the  high  schools  contain  at  least  an  equal  number  of 
women  and  men.  Under  what  possible  theory  of  justice  is  a 
woman  paid  less  than  a  man  for  the  same  work? 

The  question  is  not  whether  a  man  should  do  the  work.  That 
has  been  settled  by  the  universal  recognition  of  women's  paramount 
qualification  for  certain  departments  of  instruction.  There  certainly 
is  something  grotesque,  to  say  the  least,  in  the  inequity  of  making 
the  male  teacher's  salary  larger  than  that  of  the  woman  teacher 
who  works  in  the  next  room  at  the  same  task. 


PART  IV— CHAPTER    I 
LETTERS 

Personally,  however,  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  any  good 
reason  why  a  person  who  performs  the  same  kind  of  work  equally 
as  well  should  be  paid  any  less  because  she  happens  to  be  a  woman. 
I  am  perfectly  willing  that  you  should  use  my  name,  but  it  must  not 
be  as  the  President  of  the  Brooklyn  League,  only  in  my  individual 
capacity. 

GEORGE  W.  BRUSH  (Ex-Senator). 

I  atn  very  much  in  sympathy  with  your  movement.  I  have 
learned  through  much  experience  that  there  are  many  things  that 
women  can  do  equally  as  well  as  men,  and  whenever  a  woman 
performs  a  service  as  well  as  a  man  I  believe  she  should  have  the 
same  pay.  I  have  often  said  that  the  best  teacher  I  ever  had  in 
my  life  was  a  woman,  and  strange  to  say,  the  subjects  that  she 
taught  were  higher  mathematics. 

GAGE  E.  TARBELL. 

Jan.  30,  1908. 

Any  time  I  can  be  of  service  to  your  cause  I  will  do  anything 
in  my  power. 

CHARLES  J.  TAYLIABUE. 
Feb.  8,  1908. 

If  I  can  aid  the  movement  in  any  way  I  hereby  write  myself 
down  as  awaiting  instruction, 

THOS.  J.  CUMMINGS. 
Jan.  29,  1908. 

I  gladly  accept  the  honor  of  again  saying  a  good  word  in  favor 
of  the  equalization  salary  bill.  (In  re  the  Mayor's  hearing.  May 
II,  1909.) 

WILLIAM  A.  COKELEY,  Bronx. 

May  5,  1909. 

It  has  been  a  pleasure  for  me  to  do  what  I  can  in  the  interest 
of  your  cause. 

NATHANIEL  H.  LEVI. 

I  heartily  endorse  the  Wlhite  Bill  equalizing  teachers'  salaries 
and  I  most  respectfully  and  earnestly  urge  you  to  approve  the  bill. 

472 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         473 

As  the  present  injustice  originated  with  the  Legislature  in  the 
Davis  Law,  I  believe  that  the  proposed  White  Bill  in  correcting 
this  injustice  in  no  way  interferes  with  the  principle  of  home 
rule. 

Respectfully  yours, 

W.  E.  VERITY, 
President,   Brooklyn  Lumber  Company. 
To  Gov.  Hughes,  May  i,  1907. 

Sir:  At  the  hearing  on  the  Teachers'  Bill  this  morning,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  no  very  strong  argument  was  advanced  in  op- 
position. The  "home  rule"  objection  might  be  reasonable,  if  the 
teachers  had  not  already  appealed  to  the  Board  of  Education  and 
failed  to  get  a  square  deal.  The  gross  disproportion  in  the 
schedule  of  salaries  between  men  and  women  is  too  glaring  to  be 
successfully  ignored  in  a  profession  for  which  women  are  so 
eminently  fitted.  Simple  justice  for  a  most  faithful  body  of 
public  servants  demands  the  relief  sought  by  this  bill. 

As  a  taxpayer  I  would  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  bear  my  share 
of  the  resultant  cost.  The  opportunity  is  yours  to  see  that  the 
scales  of  justice  are  balanced  evenly. 

Very  respectfully, 

ALBERT  R  DAVIS. 
To  Mayor  McCIellan,  May  11,  1909. 

I  am  deeply  interested  in  the  success  of  any  progressive  move- 
ment such  as  yours  is. 

In  my  mind,  it  is  merely  a  matter  of  time  before  you  achieve 
what  you  are  striving  for,  because  the  trend  of  our  civilization  is 
to  insure  deserving  equality. 

"  Equal  pay  for  equal  work "  is  logically  fair  and  square,  and 
you  will  undoubtedly  win  to  it  soon. 
With  my  best  wishes, 

ARTHUR  L.  GILLAM. 

Mar.,  1910. 

I  wrote  to  Mayor  McCIellan  that  I  was  strongly  in  favor  of 
equal  pay  for  equal  work  and  asked  him  to  sign  the  bill. 

FRED.  NATHAN. 
May  ID,  1909. 

I  have  followed  your  efforts  in  the  newspapers  and  have  been 
very  sorry  to  see  that  you  have  met  with  a  temporary  defeat 
Continue  your  efforts  and  you  must,  in  time,  succeed.  The  only 
way  to  get  there  is  never  to  take  a  "knock-out  blow,"  especially 
when  you  are  in  the  right. 

W.  G.  McADOO. 

May  12,  1910. 


474         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

You  have  evidently  been  misinformed  as  to  our  not  being  in 
favor  of  the  Teachers'  Bill.  We  not  only  signed  the  petition  but 
wrote  a  letter  to  Mayor  McClellan  endorsing  the  bill. 

FREDERICK  LOESER  &  CO. 


The  movement  has  my  entire  sympathy  and  I  hope  you  will 
be  successful  in  your  endeavor  to  have  the  salaries  of  men  and 
women  teachers  equalized.  To  claim  that  a  man  should  have  more 
pay  than  a  woman  because  he  may  have  more  people  dependent 
upon  him  is  as  absurd  as  to  claim  that  a  man  with  six  children 
should  have  more  pay  than  one  with  none.  Neither  the  City  nor 
any  other  employer  should  consider  anything  but  whether  the 
person  is  fitted  to  fill  the  place,  salary  being  based  on  the  work 
performed  and  not  on  sex. 

ARTHUR  GIBB. 
(Frederick  Loeser  &  Co.) 

iMar.  S.   1908. 


The  opponents  of  the  equal  salaries  bill  seem  to  place  their  re- 
liance for  a  veto  on  two  things,  "  the  expense  to  the  city "  and  the 
"  principle  of  home  rule." 

The  first  is,  of  course,  a  mere  pretense.  You  are  not  asking 
for  a  mere  increase  in  salary,  but  for  justice.  In  regard  to  the 
second,  stress  is  laid  upon  the  fact  that  Governor  Hughes  has 
vetoed  two  bills  that  conflicted  with  the  principle,  and  your  friends, 
the  enemy,  hope  that  the  Mayor  will  look  upon  your  bill  as  a 
violation   of  the    same   principle. 

As  to  the  two  bills  referred  to,  it  may  be  said  that  they  are 
political  dickers,  pure  and  simple,  and  the  governor  does  not  look 
with  favor  upon  such  interesting  items,  but,  in  the  case  of  your 
bill,  your  grievance  was  first  presented  to  the  "  home  rulers,"  who 
have  power  in  the  matter,  and  they,  to  use  a  common  but  com- 
prehensive expression,  turned  it  down.  In  such  a  case,  the  principle 
of  home  rule  should  not  prevail.  There  is  not,  in  any  sense,  any 
politics  in  your  bill,  and  it  cannot  consistently  be  vetoed  on  the 
ground  held   in  the  other  two  vetoes. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  both  the  Mayor  and  the  governor  will 
look  upon  the  matter  in  this  light. 

The  enclosed  "  pome,"  cut  from  the  Home  Edition  of  the  Globe 
of  May  3,  is  a  disgraceful  production,  and  I  should  think  that 
"  Dr."  Cronson  and  the  members  of  his  Association  would  be 
ashamed  of  themselves. 

E.  O.  STRATTON. 

May  S,  1905. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        475 

SHAW  &  CO., 

Real  Estate  Agents  and  Brokers. 

I  most  heartily  endorse  the  equal  pay  bill,  firmly  believing  that 
the  servant  is  worthy  of  his  hire.    Trusting  you  will  be  successful, 

Yours  truly. 

HENRY  M.  VELDERS. 
Shaw  &  Co. 
Mar.  26,  1908.  * 

THE   CLERGY 

I  have  long  been  satisfied  that  the  teachers  in  our  public  schools 
do  not  receive  an  adequate  compensation.  It  is  a  position  of  such 
transcendent  importance  in  its  bearing  upon  the  citizenship  of 
the  future  that  it  is  poor  economy  upon  the  part  of  the  City  to 
stint  the  salaries  of  those  who  are  entrusted  with  the  manners  and 
instruction  of  its  children ;  and  if  women  render  the  same  service 
as  men  they  should   receive  the   same  pay. 

Believe  me,  very  truly  yours, 

DAVID  H.  GREER, 
Bishop  Episcopalian  Diocese  of  New  York. 
Feb.  24,  1908. 

I  am  glad  to  add  my  name  to  the  list  of  those  who  sympathize 
with  your  cause.  I  wish  you  and  the  teachers  every  success  in 
this  movement.  The  teachers'  proposition,  which  you  are  so  ably 
defending,  is  just  and  ought  to  be  granted. 

WILLIAM  A.  COURTNEY, 
Bishop,  New   York  Apostolate. 

To  one  that  has  taught  or  that  observes  thoughtfully  it  is 
obvious  that  the  part  performed  in  a  community  by  a  genuine 
teacher  yields  in  importance  to  none  and  is  approached  by  few. 
It  is  the  teacher  who,  as  a  rule,  leavens  the  human  lump  that 
is  in  time  to  crystallize  into  manhood  and  citizenship.  We  do  not 
honor  them  sufficiently.  When  we  pay  them  adequately  it  is 
somewhat  grudgingly.  We  are  willing  for  others  to  earn  as  much 
as  they  can.     We  are  disposed  to  pay  teachers  as  little  as  we  can. 

What  we  have  said  is  true  of  teachers  generally.  Pedagogical 
ability  is  not  a  matter  of  sex,  but  of  intellectual  and  moral  quality. 
A  good  teacher  is  good  indifferently  to  gender.  This  being  so 
there  ought  to  be  no  distinction  on  grounds  of  sex  in  our  treat- 
ment of  them. 

And  yet  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  wage  an  organized  fight 
in   our   Legislature   in   behalf   of   equal   pay   for   women   teachers. 


476         EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

From  the  Jewish  standpoint,  the  McCarren-Conklin  bill  is  im- 
perative. While  the  teacher  in  Israel  was  usually  a  man  the  spirit 
of  Judaism  would  accord  the  same  dignity  and  desert  to  a  woman. 
Every  consistent  Jew  should  favor  such  a  measure. 

Opposition  to  equal  pay  to  both  sexes  is  bad  economics.  Re- 
muneration should  be  proportioned  to  work  or  product.  From 
this  standpoint  some  men  are  less  deserving  than  their  professional 
sisters.  It  is  wide  of  the  mark  and  ludicrous  to  argue  that  a 
woman  needs  less  and  should  therefore  receive  less.  Women  do 
not  always  need  less,  but  often  are  compelled  by'  our  inconsiderate 
masculine  discrimination  to  adapt  themselves  to  less.  On  several 
reasonable  grounds  women  need  more  than  men,  but  chiefly  be- 
cause of  their  greater  dependency.  If  need  is  to  be  a  criterion  of 
wages  the  salaries  of  men  themselves  should  not  be  uniform.  The 
needs  of  men  are  diverse. 

Refusal  to  pay  women  of  equal  competence  equally  with  men  is 
a  vestige  of  that  primitive  social  state  where  man  was  master  and 
woman  subordinate.  The  age  of  masculine  assumption  is  a  re- 
grettable historic  memory.  Its  spirit  of  brutal  male  domination 
should  also  be  throttled.  It  is  a  boast  of  our  civilization  to  have 
emancipated  woman.  Let  us  make  good  our  claim.  Let  us  not 
glory  in  a  hollow  pretense.  We  grant  women  equal  opportunities 
and  privileges.     Let  us  consistently  award  them  equal  pay. 

RABBI  ALEXANDER  LYONS,  Brooklyn. 

Extract  from  sermon,  March  22,  1907. 

I  hold  that  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,"  and  I  do  not 
see  any  justice  in  a  deviation  from  that  on  the  ground  of  sex. 
Women  who  perform  the  duties  of  professorships  in  our  best 
colleges  receive  compensation  on  a  par  with  men,  and  I  have 
not  heard  eminent  educators,  or  any  other  persons,  raise  objec- 
tions. This,  it  seems  to  me,  answers  the  contention  of  some  that, 
while  women  should  receive  equal  pay  with  men  who  teach  younger 
children,  they  should  not  where  higher  branches  are  taught. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  women  are  far  more  capable  than 
men  in  dealing  with  children  under  the  age  of  fifteen  years.  Why, 
then,  do  they  not  receive  more  than  men  teachers  who  deal  with 
pupils  of  the  same  age? 

The  main  argument  of  the  men  teachers  appears  to  be  that  men 
are  heads  of  families,  and,  therefore,  have  greater  expenses  to 
meet.  Along  with  this  is  the  advancement  of  the  contention  that 
the  family  is  the  unit  of  the  nation,  the  father  the  head  of  it, 
and  nothing  should  be  done  to  impair  his  place  in  the  sociolog- 
ical scale. 

To  this  I  answer  that,  while  the  theory  is  not  to  be  denied, 
the  fact  is  that  in  innumerable  instances  women  are  the  main- 
stay of  families.  I  believe  women  who  teach  generally  aid  in  the 
support  of  their   families. 


EQUAI^  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         477 

Another  thing:  It  is  a  fact  that  a  large  number  of  the  women 
teachers  in  this  city  have  come  here  from  other  places  and  have 
to  support  themselves  just  as  the  bachelor  teachers — and  how 
many  of  them  there  are ! — do.  I  do  not  argue  that  the  men  do  not 
deserve  all  they  get;  I  mean  simply  to  insist  that  women  should 
not  be  discriminated  against  because  they  are  women. 

Of  course,  it  would  cost  the  city  a  great  deal  more  money  to 
pay  women  teachers  salaries  equal  to  men's.  But  here  is  no  place 
for  economy.  Instead,  a  cut  should  be  made  in  other  city  depart- 
ments where  men  hold  down  sinecures  due  to  political  pull.  Men 
teachers  have  votes,  too,  and  there  is  the  rub,  in  some  degree. 
Many  politicians  fear  to  estrange  men  teachers'  votes  by  uphold- 
ing the  cause  of  women  who  toil  in  our  public  schools. 

It  is  all  a  matter  of  common  justice — this  equal  pay  demand. 
It  is  a  principle  already  established  in  some  cities  in  this  and 
other  states,  and  in  time  I  hope  and  believe  that  equal  pay  will 
be  the  rule  in  the  public  schools  of  the  greatest  of  American  cities. 

ROBERT  E.  JONES, 
Canon,  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine. 

Glad  to  be  a  vice-president.      (Carnegie  Hall  Mass   Meeting.) 

CHARLES  P.  FAGNANI,  D.  D. 
Dec.   1909. 

Dr.  Aked  has  received  your  letter  of  yesterday's  date,  request- 
ing him  to  act  as  Honorary  Vice-President.  He  has  instructed 
me  to  say  "  with  pleasure." 


Dec.    1909. 

My  sympathies  are  with  you. 


DUNCAN  J.  McMillan. 


(Rev.)  W.  N.  ACKLEY. 


I  heartily  believe  in  your  worthy  cause.  Your  efforts  for  justice 
and  righteousness  will  ultimately  prevail,  and  I  wish  you  every 
success  in  your  laudable  endeavors. 

Invoking  the  Divine  blessing  upon  you  and  all  associated  with 
you  in  your  demands  for  justice.     I  remain, 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Rev.)   GEORGE  ADAMS. 
Feb.  29,   1908. 

I  am  writing  to  assure  you  of  my  thorough  sympathy  for  your 
cause,  or  the  cause  of  anyone,  who  makes  bold  to  say:  "What's 
mine  is  mine."  I  have  watched  the  matter  anxiously,  confident 
Governor  Hughes  would  favor  you,  provided  the  bill  presented 
truly  set  forth  the  situation ;  and,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
observe,  the  best  argument,  emanating  from  the  carap  of  the  op- 


47^    EQUAL  PAY  POR  EQUAL    WORK 

position,   is  that  it  will  cost   some  odd  millions  of  dollars  more 
for  the  state  to  sustain  the  schools,  should  your  request  be  granted. 

Assuming  this  to  be  true,  then  someone  in  the  past  has  been 
paid  too  much  as  someone  has  been  paid  too  little — that  was  a 
degenerate  past,  before  "  knighthood  was  in  flower."  We  can 
hardly  expect  those  who  are  paid  too  much  to  become  generous 
and  turn  over  the  extra  to  those  who  were  paid  too  little;  but 
we  do  expect  justice  and  equity  for  the  future.  We  who  believe 
in  the  Golden  Rule,  as  a  corollary  therefrom,  believe  we  should 
pay  a  woman  as  much  for  a  spool  of  silk,  an  apple  pie,  or  an 
education,  as  we  pay  a  man  for  the  above  mentioned  features  of 
graceful  existence. 

Those  who  do  not  appear  to  believe  in  the  Golden  Rule  say 
this  reform  will  cost  millions,  therefore  drop  it.  One  might  as 
well  say  it  will  cost  money  to  build  bridges  and  subways  for 
our  vast  city,  therefore  do  not  build  them;  it  will  cost  millions 
to  maintain  courts  of  justice,  therefore  do  not  maintain  them.  I 
know  of  no  worthy  cause  that  succeeds  without  effort  or  cost — 
such  an  argument  is  unworthy  of  the  most  ordinary  politician. 
If  the  thing  is  right,  we'll  have  it;  if  not,  we'll  drop  it. 

As  I  understand  it,  you  want  the  pay  to  balance  the  job,  with- 
out reference  to  sex,  race,  religion  or  previous  condhion  of 
servitude,  on  the  part  of  the  incumbent. 

Do  not  worry,  you  will  have  that  as  truly  as  water  runs  down 
hill.  There  are  oceans  of  injustice  in  the  world;  but  the  world 
is  growing  better  all  the  time. 

And,  "  I  doubt  not,  through  the  ages,  one  unceasing  purpose 
runs;  and  the  minds  of  men  will  broaden,  with  the  process  of  the 
sums." 

Therefore,  be  not  over-anxious,  just  keep  busy  and  that  better 
day  will  come. 

You  recall  what  Lincoln  said  about  "  fooling  the  people  " — that 
is  as  true  to-day  as  when  first  uttered. 

Your  cause  is  a  splendid  one — such  reforms  always  cost  sacri- 
fice commensurate  with  the  value  of  success ;  eventually  the 
puerile  arguments  sink  into  oblivion,  and  the  just  cause  has  an 
honored  past  in  the  drama  of  civilization. 

Sincerely, 
LYNN   P.  ARMSTRONG,  Pastor, 
Cuyler  Presbyterian  Church,  Brooklyn. 

Feb.  IS,  1908. 

I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  you  in  this  fight  for  "Equal  Pay." 
(Rev.)  J.  G.  BACCHUS,  Brooklyn. 

I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  the  Equal  Pay  Measure  which  you 
are  so  ably  and  eloquently  advocating.  Were  we  dependent  on  men 
for  the  education  of  our  children  most  of  the  schools  would  be 


Hon.   Reuben  L.   Gledhill, 
Father   of    Senate    "Equal   Pay   Bill,"   1909. 


EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         479 

closed  to-morrow.  My  observation  and  careful  study  of  the  ques- 
tion compel  the  conviction  that  the  male  teachers  have  no  mo- 
nopoly of  brains  or  brilliance.  The  work  of  the  average  male 
teacher  is  not  one  whit  superior  to  that  of  the  average  female 
teacher.  Then  why  discriminate?  In  Plato's  Republic  woman 
occupies  an  inferior  place  because  she  is  a  woman.  The  Amer- 
ican Republic  will  not  be  guilty  of  such  an  ancient  and  inex- 
cusable  anachronism. 

All  argument  based  on  feminine  mental  and  pedagogical  inferi- 
ority is  too  puerile  to  be  seriously  combated.  That  based  on  in- 
creased taxation  should  be  met  by  the  frank  rebuttal  that  a  glar- 
ing injustice  is  never  ultimately  economical,  and  by  the  very  im- 
portant fact  that  the  larger  amount  of  the  budget  for  equal  pay 
would  only  mean  a  few  extra  cents  per  capita  of  the  vast  body 
of  taxpayers.  Personally,  I  can  begrudge  nothing  to  the  noble 
men  and  women  who  consecrate  themselves  to  the  glorious  task 
of  educating  the  children  of  our  city.  New  York  holds  her 
head  too  proudly  high  to  discount  the  female  teachers  who  are 
of  more  value  than  her  sky  scrapers. 

Yours  faithfully, 

AUGUSTUS  E  BARNETT, 
Tremont  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Bronx. 

March  17,  1908. 

I  would  be  happy  to  attend  this  evening.  I  approve  its  object, 
but  other  engagements  prevent  attendance. 

JONATHAN  BARSTOW. 
Pastor  Second  Ave.  Baptist  Church. 

I  appreciate  the  importance  cf  the  work  you  have  undertaken, 
and  believe  in  the  righteousness  of  your  cause. 

L.  W.  BATTEN, 
Rector,  St.  Mark's  Church,  New  York. 

Thank  you  for  the  information  you  sent  me. 
I   believe    in   the  principle   of   compensation.      "The   laborer   is 
worthy   of  his  hire,"   and   every   laborer   deserves   adequate   com- 
pensation for  the  service  he  renders. 

I  should  be  glad  to  see  the  salary  question  adjusted  in  such  a 
way  that  the  standard  would  be  not  age  or  sex  but  service. 

JOHN  L.  BELFORD, 
Pastor,  Roman  Catholic  Church— The  Nativity. 
March  11,  1908. 

Our  warmest  sympathies  are  with  your  meeting  and  its  object. 

m  W.  BELLINGER. 
Vicar,  St.  Agnes'  Chapel 
Dec,  1909. 


48o        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

I  thoroughly  believe  in  the  justice  of  the  proposed  bill  that 
provides  "  that  where  men  and  women  are  appointed  to  position 
of  the  same  grade  or  rank,  they  shall  receive  the  same  pay,"  and 
can  not  understand  how  any  man  of  the  true  modern  spirit  can 
oppose  it 

WILLIAM  M.   BRUNDAGE. 
Pastor,  Unity  Church,  Brooklyn. 
Feb.  26,   1908. 

I  have  already  expressed  my  belief  in  the  justice  of  this  simple 
claim:  that  whenever  equal  work  is  done  by  teachers,  sex  should 
have  no  deterrent  influences,  but  equal  pay  should  be  given  to 
all.  I  trust  this  plain,  straightforward  statement  will  aid  your 
cause.  I  wish  that  there  were  more  men  in  the  teaching  profes- 
sion and  better  pay  for  all  concerned  in  it. 

Yours  ever, 

S.  PARKES  CADMAN, 
Central  Congregational  Church,  Brooklyn. 

I  am  in  fullest  sympathy  with  your  movement.  There  has  re- 
cently come  to  my  notice  a  case  in  our  city,  where  a  lady  princi- 
pal receives  only  about  half  as  much  salary  as  a  gentleman  in  a 
nearby  school,  who  supervises  fewer  teachers  by  several.  I  fully 
believe  great  injustice  is  being  done  the  noble  band  of  "women 
teachers "  in  our  great  city.  I  trust  the  meeting  to-night  will 
prove  a  great  popular  movement  in  the  right  direction  and  that 
your  cause  will  prevail  with  Governor  and   Mavor  alike. 

J.  W.  CAMPBELL,   Pastor, 
Washington  Heights  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

I  trust  that  your  bill  will  become  a  law.    The  sex  of  a 

teacher  as  regards  proper  compensation,  is  as  irrelevant  as  the 
sex  of  an  animal  in  a  beautiful  painting,  or  the  sex  of  the  painter 
in  a  true  piece  of  art.  The  value  of  a  teacher's  services  lies  not 
in  sex,  but  in  pedagogic  results.  I  do  not  see  what  sex  has  to 
do  with  education  in  the  realm  of  economics.  I  do  see  what  it 
involves  in  the  realm  of  morals. 

SYDNEY  HERBERT  COX,  Pastor, 
The  Church  of  the  Evangel,  Congregational,  Flatbush. 

It  has  been  a  source  of  perplexity  to  me  to  understand  why  there 
should  be  any  controversy  at  all  about  the  question,  referred  to  in 
your  note.  It  seems  to  me  perfectly  obvious  that  it  is  sheer 
injustice  to  give  a  woman  who  does  the  same  work  as  a  man 
less  compensation  than  he  receives,  only  because  she  is  a  woman. 
I  have  kept  somewhat  in  touch  with  the  discussion  and  I  do  not 
recollect  a  single  good  reason  advanced  for  beclouding  the  simple 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         481 

unimpeachable  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  I  am  most 
heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  to  give  the  women 
teachers  their  rights  in  the  premises.  I  recall  reading  somewhere 
that  the  effect  of  the  success  of  this  agitation  would  be  to  con- 
fer such  a  condition  of  independence  upon  the  women  teachers 
as  to  deter  them  from  marriage.  That  I  believe  to  be  rot;  in- 
sanely amusing  rot,  but  rot  just  the  same.  Even  if  it  were  so  I 
cannot  but  think  it  a  piece  of  singular  good  fortune  that  would 
keep  them  from  linking  their  lives  with  those  of  some  of  the 
specimens  who  plume  themselves  on  being  the  "  lords  of  creation." 
I  fear  I  am  far  too  obscure  to  be  of  much  service  for  the 
triumph  of  your  cause.  I  can  only  say  that  I  am  unreservedly  in 
favor  of  putting  an  end  to  this  long  standing  and  shameful  in- 
equality. The  legislature  must  somehow  be  made  to  realize  that 
there  are  votes  behind  your  demands.  That  is  the  consideration 
which  seems  to  be  most  potent  with  most  of  those  who  make 
our  laws. 

JOSEPH  F.  DELANY,  Rector, 
St.  Malachy's  Roman   Catholic  Church. 
Mar.   17,   1908. 

By  all  means  consider  me  heartily  in  favor  of  the  school  teach- 
ers' demands.  Any  word  or  effort  of  mine  that  may  assist  you  in 
your  honest  endeavors  to  obtain  what  to  me  seems  simply  "  justice," 
count"  as  yours  to  have  and  to  use  at  any  time.  With  best  wishes 
in  Christ. 

JOHN  H.  DOOLEY,  Roman  Catholic  Rector, 
Corpus  Christi  Chapel,  New  York. 

(To  Mayor  McClellan.) 
Honorable  Sir: 
In  signing  the  "  Gledhill-Foley  Teachers'  Bill,"  I  am  certain 
you  will  be  actuated  by  the  American  spirit  of  justice.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  you  are  persuaded  that  where  skill,  labor  or  com- 
modities are  bought  and  sold,  equivalent  compensation  should 
be  given  for  equal  service,  irrespective  of  the  sex,  color,  race  or 
nationality  of  the  producer. 

By  giving  the  above  named  Bill  your  approval,  I  believe  you 
will  commend  your  sense  of  exact  right. 

Yours  cordially, 

JOHN  DONALDSON,  Pastor, 

Union  Course  Baptist  Church. 
May  9,  1909. 

"  Every  problem  of  life  must  find  its  final  solution  in  the  light 
of  the  fatherhood  of  God,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  according 
to  the  practical  application  of  the  Golden  Rule  every  contention, 


482         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

every  cause,  every  issue,  must  be  viewed  in  this  light  and  settled 
upon  this  basis.  World-wide  problems,  national  issues,  local  is- 
sues, personal  matters,  must  all  be  settled  upon  this  basis.  Per- 
fectly germain  to  this  line  of  thought  is  that  matter  of  vital 
importance  to  the  women  teachers  in  our  public  schools,  and  it 
should  be  regarded  as  a  matter  of  vital  importance  to  us  all.  I 
need  not  reflect  upon  the  intelligence  of  this  large  congregation 
by  pausing,  even  for  a  moment,  to  explain  what  the  White  bill 
is.  I  need  only  to  assume  that  you  are  posted,  and  well  posted, 
upon  all  such  matters  as  are  of  common  interest  to  us.  You 
know  that  the  chief  objection  to  the  passing  of  the  McCarren- 
Conklin  bill  which  the  noble  afmy  of  women  teachers  have  en- 
dorsed has  been  this:  It  means  an  increase  of  nine  millions  of 
dollars  which  our  taxpayers  must  meet.  A  number  of  other  ob- 
jections have  been  made,  but  this  seems  to  be  the  most  formidable 
and  persistent  of  them  all.  The  objection  cannot  be  justified  in 
fact,  and  sustained  by  principle.  It  would  mean  an  increase  of 
about  six  millions  to  our  taxpayers  and  not  nine  millions  as  has 
been  claimed.  It  does  mean  that  our  women  teachers  shall  have 
simple  justice  done  them,  nothing  more,  nothing  less.  It  means 
that  a  woman  shall  be  paid  just  as  much  as  a  man  for  the  same 
service,  equally  well,  if  not  better,  rendered.  It  means  that  our 
people,  who  must  finally  settle  everything,  are  not  willing  that  so 
many  of  the  best  and  influential  persons  that  we  have,  our  women 
teachers,  shall  continue  to  suffer  an  injustice  simply  because  they 
happen  to  be  women.  Our  mothers  and  sisters  who  can  influence 
the  voters,  our  politicians  who  hold  their  positions  according  to 
the  decrees  of  the  voters,  our  noble  Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  of  whom  we  are  justly  proud,  all  these  should  be 
heard  from  and  in  the  name  of  chivalry,  in  the  name  of  grateful 
parents  who  appreciate  the  intellectual  and  moral  worth  of  these 
women,  in  the  name  of  a  cause  broader  than  any  creed,  in  the 
name  of  justice,  let  us  settle  this  matter  which  ought  to  be  settled 
only  in  one  way,  and  that  in  the  right  way.  Settle  this  and  every- 
thing else  according  to  the  Golden  Rule,  and  always  behave  as 
the  children  of  God." — Extract  from  sermon.  Rev,  Luther  B.  Dyott, 
United  Congregational  Church,  Brooklyn, 

I  am  in  fullest  sympathy  with  your  effort  to  secure   (regard- 
less of  sex)    equal  pay  for  positions  of  the  same  grade  or  rank. 

W.  R.  ESTES,  Pastor, 
Union  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Brooklyn. 
March  6,  1908. 

I   wish   I   could  be  with  you,   and   g^ve  you   all  the   sympathy 
and  aid  in  my  power. 

WALTER  A.  A.  GARDURI,  Rector. 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Wlest  Houston  Street 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         483 

I  believe  in  your  work  and  wish  you  success. 

(Rev.)  GEORGE  C  GROVES,  Jr., 

Holy  Cross  Mission,  Brooklyn. 
(Mar.  4,  1908. 

The  Parkside  Christian  Socialist  Fellowship  heartily  endorses  the 
"  Equal  Pay  Bill "  supported  by  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers. 

B.   C.   HAMMOND. 
Parkside  Church,  Presbyterian, 
March  26,  1908.  Lenox  Road,  Flatbush. 

I  am  in  most  hearty  accord  with  the  efforts  of  the  teachers  in 
New  York  City  to  secure  for  their  work  the  same  compensation 
that  is  paid  to  men  for  the  same  work.  I  never  could  see  any 
reason  why  there  should  be  any  discrimination.  In  a  city  so  large 
and  wealthy  as  is  ours  there  can  be  no  excuse  for  such  injustice. 
I  have  found  from  observation  that  quite  a  large  percentage  of 
women  teachers  have  others  dependent  upon  them  for  support.  For 
this  reason  they  should  be  fairly  compensated  for  their  labor.  I 
sincerely  hope  that  the  efforts  which  your  society  is  making  may 
be  successful. 

RICHARD  HARTLEY.  Pastor, 

Feb.  13,  1908.  Hope  Baptist  Church,  New  York. 

The  movement  has  my  entire  sympathy  and  approbation. 

JOHN  J.  HEISCHMANN,  D.  D.,  Pastor, 
St.  Peter's  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  Brooklyn. 
(Mar.  20,  1907. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  knowledge  that  I  am  in  hearty  agreement 
with  you  will  add  very  materially  to  the  weight  of  your  argu- 
ment, unless  there  is  some  truth  in  the  old  saying  that  "  many 
a  meikle  mak's  a  muckle." 

However,  let  me  assure  you  that,  speaking  for  myself,  I  can 
see  no  reason  why  the  female  teachers  of  our  schools  who  are 
called  upon  to  do  exactly  the  same  work  as  the  male  teachers 
should  not  get  salaries  on  the  same  scale.  This,  I  think,  is  funda- 
mental, and,  simple  as  it  seems,  the  whole  burden  of  your  argu- 
ment will  need  to  be  directed  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  citizens 
of  the  State  upon  this  one  point.  Once  our  citizens  become  pos- 
sessed with  the  idea  of  the  injustice  of  the  two  scales,  relief  will 
follow.  If  my  voice  can  aid  any  in  the  rising  cry,  I  am  ready 
to  shout.  Wishing  you  the  success  you  deserve-  in  your  effort, 
I  am, 

JAMES  BOYD  HUNTER,  Pastor, 
Anderson  Memorial  Reformed  Church,  New  York. 

Mar.  9,  1908. 


484         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

I  will   drop  everything  at  the  shortest  notice  and  go  anywhere 
at  your  call  for  your  cause. 

ALEXANDER  IRVINE, 

Church  of  the  Ascension. 
Dec,  1909. 

Wishing  you  abundant  success. 


T.  J.  LACEY,  Rector, 

Church  of  the  Redeemer. 


Dec,  1909. 


You  may  quote  me  as  being  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  prin- 
ciple of  "  equal  pay  for  equal  service." 

M.  A.   LAYTON,   Pastor, 
DeKalb  Avenue  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

You  may  quote  me  anywhere  as  believing,  that  since,  after  years 
of  demonstration,  it  is  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  women  make  as 
effective  teachers  in  the  public  schools  as  men,  I  am  strongly  of 
the  opinion  that  when  they  do  precisely  the  same  work,  and  carry 
identical  burdens,  and  show  essentially  the  same  results,  that  men 
and  women  should  receive  the  same  pay. 

CHARLES  EDWARD  LOCKE, 
Hanson  Place  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
March  S,  1908. 

I  heartily  approve  your  movement  and  endorse  the  principle 
upon  which  it  is  based. 

My  convictions  have  grown  out  of  thirty-five  years*  experience 
in  school  work  in  various  capacities, — as  teacher,  City  Superin- 
tendent, County  Superintendent,  College  President,  and  other  of- 
ficial positions.  During  my  nine  years'  pastorate  in  this  city,  I  have 
kept  close  touch  with  the  public  schools  in  an  unofficial  capacity. 
I  am  confirmed  in  the  conviction  that  it  is  unfair  and  unjust  to 
require  a  man  and  a  woman  to  do  the  same  amount  and  character 
in  the  same  community  upon  different  stipends.  The  evil  is  ag- 
gravated when  the  discrimination  is  against  the  sex  which  our 
civilization  has  always  delighted  to  honor.  And  it  seems  almost 
pusillanimous  when  we  remember  that  the  favored  sex  has  ex- 
clusive power  in  fixing  the  salaries.  It  is  unmanly  and  un-Amer- 
ican to  discriminate  against  a  helpless  class,  however  they  may 
be  differentiated,  whether  by  race,  color,  or  sex. 

DUNCAN  J.   McMillan,   Pastor, 
New  York  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York  City. 

I  am   in   full   sympathy  with   your   movement. 

(Rev.)  D.  J.  McWILLIAM. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK         485 

My  sympathy  is  with  you. 

(Rev.)  G.  MAINE. 

I  am  with  you.  Your  contention  is  so  just  that  it  will  ulti- 
mately prevail. 

REV.  EDWARD  McGUFFEY. 
Dec,  1909. 

With  the  purpose  of  your  movement  I  am  indeed  in  hearty 
sympathy.  Woman  has  become  economically  free.  This  is  a 
fact.  The  recognition  of  the  fact  by  law  makers  and  law  admin- 
istrators and  by  the  public  generally,  is  only  a  question  of  time. 
Equal  pay  for  equal  work  is  one  step  in  this  direction.  Work 
for  it,  and  when  you  get  it,  as  you  will  in  time,  take  up  the  next 
step. 

JOHN  HOWARD  MELISH,  Rector. 
Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Brooklyn. 

Mtar.  4,  1908. 

I  am  very  glad  to  go  on  record  as  favoring  the  "  Equal  Pay 
Bill."  I  have  not  heard  a  single  argument  against  it  which 
was  worth  repeating.  It  seems  to  me  a  question  of  common 
justice  and  withal  of  good  economics.  We  need  the  best  teachers 
we  can  procure  for  the  children  who  are  to  become  our  citizens. 
To  my  mind,  in  the  lower  grades  of  our  public  schools,  the 
woman  is  the  greater  power  in  training  the  boys  for  political 
and  the  girls  for  social  influence.  Especially  in  the  congested 
districts  of  the  city — like  our  East  Side — the  children  need 
"  mothering."  Too  frequently  they  do  not  receive  it  in  the 
home.  The  woman  teacher  not  only  supplies  this  element,  but 
is  in  no  wise  inferior  to  the  man  in  her  educational  equipment 
and  ability,  I  say  this  after  careful  consideration  of  the  ques- 
tion. 

G.  ERNEST  MERRIAM,  Pastor, 
Fourteenth   Street  Presbyterian   Church,   N.   Y. 

April  II,  1908. 

I  am  in  thorough  sympathy  with  your  movement  and  have 
advocated  it  on  numerous  occasions.  Permit  me  to  congratu- 
late you  on  the  same  methods  you  are  employing  to  enforce 
the  demands  of  justice.  We  are  living  in  an  age  when  public 
opinion  is  the  great  ruling  force  in  all  departments  of  life. 
If  we  can  educate  and  crystallize  this  all-pervading  force,  jus- 
tice will  come  of  itself,  without  revolutionary  tactics  of  any 
kind.  "Whoever  fights,  whoever  falls,  justice  conquers  ever- 
more." 

GROVER  G.  MILLS,  Pastor, 

Pilgrim  Chapel,  Brooklyn. 

Feb.  29,  1908. 


486         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

"  Equal  pay  for  equal  work  "  is  common  justice,  both  within 
and  without  the  public  schools.  I,  for  one,  cannot  see  why 
ability  and  efficiency  should  be  discriminated  against  when 
dressed  in  gowns  instead  of  pantaloons.  You  surely  are  right, 
so  go  ahead! 

L.  K.  MOORE,  Pastor, 
Eighteenth  Street  M.  E.  Church,  Brooklyn. 
Mar.  10,  1908. 

I  am  an  ex-public  school  teacher,  and  I  have  always  been 
strongly  in  favor  of  the  movement  for  which  you  are  working. 

HENRY  MOTTET,  Rector. 
Church  of  the  Holy  Communion,  New  York. 
Jan.  23,  1908. 

I  believe  that  a  woman  doing  equal  work  with  a  man  should 
be  paid  the  same  compensation. 

FRANK  PAGE,  Rector. 
St.  John's  Church,  Brooklyn. 
Jan.  22,  1908. 

In  payment  for  service  rendered  the  question  of  sex  should 
not  exclude  honesty.  Because  I  believe  in  the  necessity  of  jus- 
tice and  the  essentialness  of  honorable  treatment,  your  claim 
of  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work "  appeals  to  me  with  the  power 
of  right  and  the  persuasiveness  of  truth. 
Success  to  your  cause. 

THOMAS  EDWARD  POTTERTON,  Pastor, 

Church  of  Our  Father,  Brooklyn. 


I  wish  you  success. 


PAUL  H.  SCHNATZ,  Pastor, 
Martha  Memorial  Reformed  Church. 


I  desire  to  assure  you  of  my  deep  sympathy  with  your  cause 
and  my  firm  conviction  as  to  the  righteousness  of  its  principles. 
Last  year  I  went  to  Albany  to  the  public  hearing  before  the 
Governor,  representing  the  women  teachers  of  Richmond  Bor- 
ough, but  you  will  recollect  I  had  no  opportunity  to  speak  at 
the  hearing  because  of  the  lack  of  time.  I  have  written  two  or 
three  times  to  my  friend,  Governor  Hughes,  urging  his  interest 
and  support.  If  I  can  in  any  way  help  the  cause  for  which  you 
are  so  heroically  struggling,  I  shall  be  glad  to  do  so. 

REV.  CHARLES  SCHWEIKERT. 

You  may  count  on  me  as  heartily  in  favor  of  the  success  of 
the  cause  which  you  represent. 

I  trust  that  you  and  your  associates  will  not  grow  discour- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         487 

aged  and  give  over  your  efforts,  for  you  will  assuredly  yet  win 
a  memorable  and  justly  deserved  victory.  Your  cause  is  just 
and  righteous,  and  men,  although  they  are  proverbially  narrow 
when  dealing  in  money  matters  with  women,  still  they  yet  will 
see  their  error  and  grant  your  claim.  Moral  progress  will  not 
much  longer  tolerate  delay.  So-called  logic  may  make  crooked 
paths  to  get  around  the  fixed  principle — "  Equal  pay  for  equal 
work,"  but  common  sense  and  right  reason  will  yet  lead  a  re- 
luctant public  opinion  to  right  conclusions,  and  all  the  fair- 
minded  will  rejoice  that  the  women  have  finally  come  into  their 


own 


G.  E.  STROWBRIDGE,  Pastor, 
Washington  Square  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
Feb,  S,  1908. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  efficiency  and  not  sex  should 
determine  compensation  for  service.  The  general  principle 
enunciated  by  the  Great  Teacher  when  he  sent  forth  those  who 
were  to  be  teachers  "  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,"  is  as 
true  to-day  as  then,  and  if  you  shall  find  strong  incentive  for 
best  possible  equipment  for  your  work  and  for  the  attainment 
of  the  highest  success  in  your  calling,  you  must  be  given  to 
understand  that  all  the  rights  and  emoluments  of  your  calling 
are  available  to  you.. 

May  your  cause  prevail. 

D.  B.  THOMPSON,  Pastor, 
Park  Avenue  Miethodist  Episcopal  Church,  N.  Y. 

April  8,  1908. 

I  hope  you  will  be  successful  ia  your  efforts  toward  receiving 
"  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work." 

FRANK  M.  TOWNLEY,  Rector, 
St.    Bartholomew's    Church. 

I  am  in  sympathy  with  the  movement  for  equal  pay,  and  I 
think  the  plea  is  just,  though  in  the  present  state  of  finance  this 
might  mean  the  reduction  of  the  salaries  of  the  male  teaching 
force. 

F.  TRACEY. 
The  Church  of  the  Redeemer,  Brooklyn. 
Jan.  23,  1908. 

There  is  no  sex  in  teaching,  and  there  ought  to  be  none  ia 
pay. 

DR.  HENRY  VAN  DYKE. 

As  to  the  use  of  my  name,  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  be  quoted 
as  heartily  in  favor  of  a  just  compensation  for  services  ren- 
dered, whether  by  men  or  women,  and  as  heartily,  opposed  to 


488         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

any  discrimination  in  the  matter  of  compensation,  on  the  ground 
of  difference  in  sex  or  anything  else.  Work  should  be  recom- 
pensed according  to  its  quality  and  quantity,  whether  the  worker 
be  man  or  woman,  even  though  the  man  be  the  head  of  a 
household  and  the  woman  have  no  one  else  dependent  upon  her. 
(REV.)  NEWELL  WOOLSEY  WELLS, 

Brooklyn. 
Feb.  29,  1908. 

I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  effort  of  your  Association. 

T.  J.  WHITAKER,  Pastor. 
Bushwick  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Brooklyn. 
Jan.  22,  1908. 

I  am  very  much  in  favor  of  "  Equal  Pay  "  legislation? 

A.  ARCESE,  Rector. 
St.  Lucy's  Roman  Catholic  Church,  Brooklyn. 
Jan.   20,   1908. 

I  am  in  deep  sympathy  with  the  movement  and  in  favor  of 
the  proposed  bill. 

LEIGHTON  WILLIAMS, 
Amity  House,  New  York  City. 

EDITORS,   LITTERATEURS   AND   ARTISTS 

Mr.  Hearst  has  given  instructions  to  all  of  his  newspapers 
and  to  all  of  his  editorial  writers,  to  fight  persistently  on  the 
side  of  the  teachers  and  of  the  public  school  children.  Mr. 
Hearst  has  said  to  me  repeatedly  that  he  considers  the  welfare 
of  the  public  school  children,  and  generous,  appreciative  treat- 
ment of  public  school  teachers,  the  most  important  individual 
thing  in  our  public  life. 

The  articles  which  you  see  in  the  paper,  similar  to  the  one 
of  which  you  speak,  are  written  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Hearst's 
personal  and  often-repeated  instructions. 

A.  BRISBANE, 
Editor,  New  York  Journal. 

Sept.  26,  1907. 

I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  work  that  women  teachers 
do,  unquestionably  the  most  important  daily  work  that  is  done 
in  the  world.  I  shall  be  glad  to  talk  to  your  membership  for 
a  few  minutes,  as  you  suggest,  if  you  want  me  to,  but  I  am  a 
pretty  bad  talker. 

A.  BRISBANE. 
Editor,  New  York  Journal. 
May  23,  1908. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         489 

Dear  Miss  Ennis: 

Your  very  kind  favor  has  been  forwarded  to  me.  I  am  heartily 
in  sympathy  with  the  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  to  secure  the  full  salaries  paid 
to  men  teachers.  My  feelings  have  been  expressed  on  this 
subject  at  various  times,  and  I  hope  are  well  known  in  Brook- 
lyn. I  certainly  shall  feel  proud  to  be  casually  mentioned  as  an 
enthusiastic  believer  in  your  cause.  If  I  felt  that  any  word 
from  me  would  aid  you,  I  would  be  present  at  your  meeting, 
and  also  volunteer  to  go  to  Albany  to  state  your  case,  from 
my  heart  to  the  Legislative  Committees.  Do  not  be  discouraged. 
Great  battles  for  the  right  are  not  won  easily.  Common  sense 
tells  every  rational  man  that  teaching  is  an  art  that  woman 
can  practice  as  well  if  not  with  more  success,  than  men.  A 
man  ought  to  be  paid  more  money  for  carrying  a  hod  or  mixing 
mortar  than  a  woman  could  earn  at  the  same  work,  because 
she  is  unfitted  for  the  labor,  but  she  should  be  paid  exactly  what 
he  receives, — if  she  be  competent  for  the  job. 

With  the  most  sincere  hope  for  and  belief  in  your  success, 
I  am,  yours  faithfully, 

Mar.  2,  1908.  JULIUS  CHAMBERS. 

My  Dear  M'iss  Comey: 

After  studying  over  your  question  for  nearly  a  month,  I  can 
make  but  one  answer  and  that  is  it  should  be  the  quality  of  the 
work  done  and  mot  the  sex  of  the  worker  which  should  govern 
the  price. 

DAN  BEARD. 

(Author  of  "Field  and  Forest  Handy  Book,"  "The  American 
Boy's  Handy  Book,"  "The  Outdoor  Handy  Book,"  "The  Jack 
of  All  Trades,"  etc.    E.  C.) 

Dear  Miss  Corney. 

I  have  always  believed  that  women  should  receive  the  same 
pay  for  the  same  work  as  men  do.  If  a  life  is  saved  or  a  good 
deed  performed,  does  God  ask  whether  it  was  a  man  or  a 
woman?  You  might  as  well  pay  more  or  less  for  services  per- 
formed by  those  of  different  religious  belief  or  political  faith. 
A  result  obtained  should  be  paid  for  without  regard  to  who 
performed  it.  The  rain  falls  alike  on  the  just  and  unjust — if 
they  haven't  sense  enough  to  go  in  out  of  the  rain.  Many 
women  have  those  depending  upon  them  for  support  the  same 
as  men.  It  certainly  costs  more  to  dress  a  woman  than  it 
does  a  man,  especially  when  she  is  single.  If  it  doesn't,  it  ought 
to. 

R.  F.  OUTCAULT, 
(Creator  of  Buster  Brown) 

April  9,  1908b  E.  C. 


490        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

I  need  hardly  say  I  am  entirely  in  sympathy  with  your  move- 
ment. This  sex  bar  is  becoming  quite  ridiculous. 

FORBES-ROBERTSON. 

I  do  not  think  the  pay  for  any  position  in  the  public  service 
should  depend  upon  whether  the  occupant  is  a  man  or  a  woman. 
I  shall  therefore  be  glad  to  be  included  among  your  vice-presi- 
dents. 

NORMAN  HAPGOOD. 

Dec,  1909.  Editor,  Colliers  Weekly. 

Israel  Zangwill  in  a  London  speech  denounced  the  flagrant  in- 
justice of  denying  women  equal  recognition  with  men  in  their 
work  in  the  profession. 

" EQUAL  PAY  " 

Under  the  rule  of  commercialism,  labor  receives  only  the  cur- 
rent rate  of  wages.  If  sex  makes  labor  cheaper,  only  the  sex 
price  will  be  paid  in  general  business  accordingly  as  we  find 
that  we  can  secure  the  service  we  need  from  either  the  potential 
father  or  the  potential  mother.  Individual  merit  often  rises 
above  the  limitations  of  sex,  as  thus.  You  may  prefer  an  efficient 
woman  in  some  particular  line  or  capacity,  even  if  nature  at 
intervals  interrupts  her  office  attendance,  to  a  man  who,  though 
even  a  little  more  efficient  perhaps,  is  less  faithful  in  the  impera- 
tive routine  because  of  the  sin  which  doth  most  easily  beset 
males.     (Need  I  name  it?) 

So  we  shall  have  to  leave  business  to  work  out  its  own  prob- 
lems, for  it  will  always  do  so,  even  if  strange  Government 
policies  are  sometimes  adopted  with  a  view  to  making  water 
run  up  hill  without  a  pump.  But  although  Government  was 
first  established  as  a  selfish  measure  of  mutual  protection  of  the 
units  of  a  community,  it  has  grown  to  a  moral  ideal.  It  is 
ideals  alone  that  make  life  worth  living,  and  it  is  reality  alone 
that  justifies  the  modern  multifariousness  of  the  activities  of 
Government.  Granting  that  almost  self-evident  proposition, 
the  logical  deduction  is  that  the  payments  of  Government  for 
its  machinery  and  the  operators  of  it  should  be  on  a  more  moral 
basis  than  that  of  the  individual  units  of  a  community,  each 
struggling  in  the  battle  of  bread-winning  on  the  principle  of 
"  all's  fair  *  *  *  in  war,"  but  keeping  truce  in  the  communal 
organization.  We  aim  to  have  a  perfect  Government  even  if 
our  private  lives  are  not  aimed  at  perfection.  And  perfect 
Government  demands  that  labor  shall  be  paid  under  a  scheme 
of  equality;  that  qualification  and  merit  shall  be  the  test  for 
allotting  wages  or  other  forms  of  remuneration — not  color,  nor 
religion,  nor  fashion,  nor  SEX. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         491 

The  women  teachers  whose  cause  you  have  so  long  and  so 
ably  advocated.  Miss  Strachan,  have  special  claims,  in  my  opin- 
ion, in  the  controversy  that  will  never  be  settled  till  it  is  settled 
right.  Personally,  however,  I  prefer  to  argue  on  the  one  line 
herebefore  mentioned — "  Equal  Pay."  The  very  shibboleth  is  con- 
clusive of  all  discussion. 

JAMES  S.  H.  UMSTED. 

"EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL  WORK" 

A  reply  to  a  circular  entitled  "  Equal  Pay  For  Equal  Work " 
which  male  teachers  had  distributed  outside  Cooper  Union  on 
the  occasion  of  our  mass  meeting,  January  30,  1908. 

By  Miss  Lina  E.  Gano,  Manhattan  Vice-President,  Interbor- 
ough  Association  of  Women  Teachers. 

"  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." — Luke,  X-7. 

Many  women  are  laborers;  "so  recognized  by  our  statutes, 
and  firmly  so  established  by  consent "  of  modern  society,  their 
male  relatives  and  shifting  economic  conditions. 

Because  of  peculiar  adaptations  woman  has  found  her 
"  natural  and  advantageous  sphere  of  effort  in  activities  "  asso- 
ciated with  the  training  and  education  of  youth.  Because  of 
peculiar  economi_c_and  social  conditions  of  modern  life,  many 
women  have  found  this  "  natural  sphere  of  effort  in  activities 
beyond  the  threshold  of  the  home." 

'*  Money  in  the  form  of  salary,  wages,  etc.,  also  as  the  price 
of  marketable  products,  is,  after  all,  but  the  mere  convenience 
of  civilization  by  which  mankind  "  and  womankind  "  may  easily 
interchange  their  peculiar  individual  products  or  benefits  for 
desirable  secessities  or  benefits  held  by  others." 

The  above  facts  are  some  of  the  fundamental  truths  in  our 
social  and  economic  systems. 

The  family  is  one  of  several  social  units  recognized  by  promi- 
nent authorities.  See  Gidding's  Historical  Sociology.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City  find 
themselves  the  heads  of  families  which  they  have  inherited. 
For  the  support  and  maintenance  of  said  families  they  are 
forced  to  pay  the  full  market  price  for  foods,  shelter,  clothing, 
transportation,  physician's  services,  amusements,  etc. 

The  family  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  was  probably  the 
economic  unit.  The  wife,  the  children  and  all  other  property 
constituted  the  family  wealth — oikos.  This  is  no  longer  true. 
The  fact  that  women  are  recognized  as  independent  units  in 
the  industrial  world,  with  independent  responsibilities,  proves  the 
failure  of  the  acient  scheme  under  modern  conditions. 

The  statutes  of  the  State  of  New  York  recognize  the  man  and 
the  woman  as  separate  economic  units  even  when  they  are  one 


492         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

in  marriage.  The  married  woman  has  the  right  to  her  own 
earnings  and  to  her  own  inherited  wealth.  Married  or  single, 
the  woman  may  make  contracts  and  be  held  responsible  for  the 
same  under  statute  law  governing  similar  transactions  in  any 
case.  She  may  buy  or  sell  in  the  open  market  of  the  City,  the 
State,  or  the  Nation,  and  enjoy  all  the  protection  and  immuni- 
ties of  property  accorded  to  other  citizens.  She  is  also  forced 
to  recognize  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  other  property 
owners.  She  may  hold  real  estate  in  her  own  right  and  must 
pay  her  full  pro-rata  of  taxes  for  state  and  local  protection. 
She  may  enter  any  service  or  profession  for  which  she  is 
eligible  without  hindrance  or  discrimination  of  statute  law,  ex- 
cept that  of  teaching  the  youth  of  the  State. 

By  the  Constitution,  the  women  of  the  State  of  New  York 
are  recognized  as  citizens,  or  political  units;  by  statute  law  they 
are  recognized  as  industrial  and  economic  units.  To  confuse 
ancient  and  mediaeval  economic  standards  with  modern  stand- 
ards, or  to  confuse  social  units  with  industrial  units  is  either 
the  result  of  ignorance  or  perversion. 

"  The  more  clearly  we  look  into  the  daily  lives,  habits  and 
occupations  of  the  great  mass  of  society,  that  m  some  form  or 
other,  is  obliged  to  work  for  and  earn  its  own  living,  the  more 
clearly  do  we  perceive  that  the  so-called  work  "  of  the  individ- 
ual is  the  combined  work  of  the  individual  and  those  who  min- 
ister to  the  individual's  necessities.  "The  wife  prepares  meals 
and  helps  in  maintaining  the  home  of  the  husband " ;  the  woman 
who  goes  out  into  the  working  world  must  trust  the  same  to 
servants,  often  careless,  extravagant  and  incompetent. 

The  wages  of  an  individual,  then,  should  be  the  wages  fitted 
to  the  requirements  for  the  service,  the  results  of  the  service 
and  the  supply  of  said  individuals  in  the  open  market.  For  any 
class  in  any  service  to  ask  or  petition  for  more  is  to  ask  for 
special  protection  and  consideration  from  society.  It  is  a 
pitiful  exhibition  on  the  part  of  those  claiming  the  protection 
and  an  unjust  reflection  upon  others  of  the  same  class  who  are 
ready  to  meet  the  conditions.  Granting  the  special  protection, 
forces  the  employer,  the  City  or  State  of  New  York,  into  the 
attitude  of  an  eleemosynary  institution.  To  the  credit  of 
American  manhood  and  our  civil  administration  it  is  fair  to  say 
that  there  is  but  one  department  of  the  public  service  of  the 
City  of  New  York  where  discrimination  in  favor  of  men  as 
against  women  is  asked.  It  is  also  fair  to  state  that  the  eco- 
nomic standards  of  every  profession  except  that  of  teaching, 
are  measured  by  conditions  of  to-day  as  opposed  to  those  of 
Ancient  Rome  and  Mediaeval  Europe.  This  may  perhaps  ac- 
count for  the  measure  of  contempt  sometimes  felt  for  the 
teaching  service,  by  those  who  know  and  recognize  that  eco- 
nomics is  a  "  shifting  science." 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         493 

When,  therefore,  a  woman,  often  charged  with  a  home  and 
always  contributing  to  the  life  of  the  nation,  enters  the  indus- 
trial field,  she  is  entitled  to  the  compensation  of  other  individ- 
uals in  the  same  field.  She  is  entitled  to  the  same  pay  as  the 
man  whose  just  wage  is  what  he  is  worth.  It  is  right  that  she 
should  receive  as  much  as  any  other  employee,  meeting  the 
same  requirements  and  producing  equivalent  results,  particularly 
when  we  remember  the  helpless  members  of  her  family  or  the 
incompetent  servants  upon  whom  she  must  depend  for  necessi- 
ties. 

The  pay  that  mea  teachers  receive  by  the  existing  schedule 
is  certainly  not  extravagant,  but  compared  with  womea  gives 
them  in  many  cases  double  pay  for  the  same  work. 

These  considerations  are  in  distinct  contradiction  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  civil  service  system  in  every  other  depart- 
ment of  the  City  or  State  service.  Any  legislation  that  con- 
tinues these  discriminations  and  "  inflicts  arbitrary,  artificial  and 
unnatural  conditions "  in  economic  life,  is  not  in  the  interest 
of  justice  or  equity,  but  in  the  interest  of  a  special  class.  It 
is  class  legislation  of  the  grossest  type. 

The  demand  for  unequal  pay  by  men  teachers  is  based  upon 
the  mistaken  notion  that  woman  is  not  yet  an  entity,  and  ignor- 
ing the  fact  that  the  Constitution  and  statute  law  have  recog- 
nized her  as  such  in  making  her  a  political  and  industrial  unit 
with  accompanying  responsibilities. 

When  the  wife  made  the  cloth  and  the  clothes,  knit  the 
stockings  and  the  gloves,  brewed  the  ale,  made  the  cheese,  the 
butter  and  the  bread  for  the  family,  cured  the  meats  and  all 
table  delicacies,  and  combined  the  qualifications  of  a  teacher 
with  those  of  a  physician,  and  when  the  husband  provided  the 
shelter  and  contributed  the  raw  materials  for  all  of  his  so- 
called  natural  dependents,  the  family  was  an  economic  unit. 
But  conditions  have  changed. 

This  work  is  now  done  outside  the  home  by  women  as  well 
as  men  who  are  skilled  in  the  various  industries  and  profes- 
sions. Each  of  these  individuals  has  his  or  her  own  burdens 
and  problems  as  an  individual.  Each  receives  a  renumeration 
as  an  individual.  The  woman  does  very  much  the  same  kind  of 
work  as  before,  only  the  ways  of  doing  the  work  and  the 
methods  of  remuneration  have  changed.  In  other  words,  society 
has  come  to  recognize  the  woman  and  the  man  as  individuals 
and  as  economic  units  rather  than  parts  of  units.  Each  individ- 
ual comes  very  near  living  an  individual  life  but  with  certain 
obligations  to  render  to  dependents  and  to  the  great  social 
structure.  Women  as  well  as  men  have  become  bread  winners 
and  have  been  forced  to  assume  the  responsibilities  and  obliga- 
tions formerly  assumed  by  the  so-called  heads  of  families.  In 
some  industries  and  several  professions  there  is  no  discrimina- 


494         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

tion  against  women  if  the  service  rendered  is  satisfactory,  but 
in  the  teaching  profession  many  localities  make  a  discrimination 
varying  from  30  per  cent,  to  50  per  cent,  because  of  sex  and 
no  corresponding  discrimination  in  their  favor  from  landlords, 
grocers,  public  service  corporations,  etc. 

These  social  and  economic  conditions  have  come  m  spite  of 
any  theories  that  we  may  individually  entertain.  As  Professor 
Farnum,  of  Yale,  has  recently  said,  "We  are  living  in  a  highly 
dynamic  period.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  change  that  we 
sometimes  do  not  realize  all  that  it  means  or  the  rate  of  the 
change  of  the  present  day."  But  the  family  as  an  economic 
unit  has  passed.  In  the  industrial  and  commercial  world,  per- 
sons are  paid  for  efficiency  of  service.  Salaries  and  wages  are 
not  determined  by  the  size  of  families. 

Systems  of  economics  also  reflect  these  changes.  Each  his- 
toric period  has  had  some  economic  ideal  which  passed  for  a 
law  in  its  time.  In  the  Feudal  period  society  was  wedded  to 
the  theory  that  the  economic  status  of  every  class  was  measured 
by  its  relation  to  the  land.  Legislation  was  class  legislation 
and  reflected  the  position  of  the  classes  to  landed  estates.  But 
in  turn  many  of  these  ideas  and  ideals  were  outgrown.  The 
Davis  Law,  however,  which  fixes  the  salaries  of  teachers  in  the 
City  of  New  York  is  a  relic  of  this  mediaeval  class  legis- 
lation. 

By  this  law,  men  secured  protection  which  removed  them  and 
their  services  from  the  open  market  and  fixed  a  wage  for  a  class 
from  30  per  cent,  to  60  per  cent,  greater  than  for  another  class 
(women)  for  whom  they  also  legislated. 

After  the  Feudal  theories  came  the  theory  of  government 
control  and  government  interference  in  all  industrial  and  com- 
mercial enterprises,  as  evidenced  in  France  and  England  for 
two  or  more  centuries  before  the  French  Revolution.  Again 
the  economic,  political  and  legislative  ideas  went  hand  in  hand 
until  they  were  overthrown  by  one  of  the  most  notable  struggles 
in  history. 

Then  gradually  came  freedom  from  government  control,  free- 
dom for  labor,  freedom  to  combine  and  in  time  freedom  for 
trade  and  the  announcement  that  the  "  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand "  would  at  last  settle  the  economic  questions  of  the  world. 
It  was  thought  that  John  Stuart  Mill  had  said  the  last  word 
on  the  subject  of  competition.  When  Bagehot  doubted  whether 
competition  always  worked  perfectly  and  when  Walker  dared 
to  advocate  governmental  interference  in  industry,  they  were 
consigned  to  the  place  from  which  we  all  hope  to  escape.  But 
as  President  Hadley  of  Yale  has  recently  said,  "Modern  eco- 
nomics as  a  science  is  being  freed  from  the  remorseless  logic  of 
John     Stuart     Mill.    Even    this     system     is    passing.    The     old 


Hon.  Mirabeau  L.  Towns, 
Chairmak,   Caknegie   Hall   Mass   Meeting,   December   17,    1909. 


EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         495 

economic  orthodoxy  is  gone,  and  may  I  add,  no  one  knows  this 
better  than  American  men.  The  doctrine  of  supply  and  demand 
is  not  accepted  by  society.  Our  American  financial  system  is  a 
very  definite  protest  against  the  logic  of  a  few  economists 
whose  teachings  American  men  have  never  heeded.  Then  why 
quote  this  antiquated  doctrine  to  women  and  ask  them  to  con- 
form to  a  theory  that  society  has  overthrown  for  men.  Pro- 
fessor Dewey,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
in  his  Presidential  address  before  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, made  a  plea  for  more  accurate  and  scientific  observa- 
tion of  facts  before  any  theory  of  economics  could  be  established 
with  justice  and  intelligence  for  all.  He  insisted  upon  the 
futility  of  teaching  theory  while  there  is  no  unanimity  as  to 
the  facts  upon  which  these  theories  are  based.  For  example, 
exactly  opposite  statements  were  made  concerning  the  panic 
of  1907,  by  eminent  authorities.  In  the  remorseless  theory  of 
supply  and  demand  not  all  of  the  facts  are  known — the  theorj' 
is  based  upon  partial  knowledge.  In  fact,  no  economic  theory 
is  yet  to  be  trusted.  There  is  much  propaganda  for  the  sake 
of  promoting  the  theory  of  some  interested  party  or  parties. 

But  at  last  men  have  come  to  realize  that  for  men  compe- 
tition is  not  merely  a  struggle  for  existence.  They  insist  that 
for  men,  at  least,  society  shall  draw  up  the  rules  of  the  game 
and  hence  by  organization,  agitation  and  legislation  they  are 
able  to  escape  the  bitter  theory  of  supply  and  demand.  Society 
must  establish  social  justice.  New  ideas  of  justice  and  equality 
are  being  recognized.  A  new  economic  philosophy  must  be 
formulated  and  women  bearing  the  burdens  of  men  and  rend- 
ering to  society  a  service  equally  valuable  must  not  be  asked 
to  conform  to  an  economic  code,  that  the  other  half  of  the  race 
has  outgrown. 

LINA  E.  GANO, 
Manhattan  Vice-President, 
Interborough  Association  Women  Teachers. 

I  have  made  some  inquiries  as  to  the  attitude  of  universities 
in  the  matter  of  salaries  paid  to  women  instructors.  The  ques- 
tion does  not  come  up  here  at  Cornell,  where  the  instructing 
staff,  with  a  single  exception,  is  made  up  of  men,  but  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  learn  in  universities  where  both  men  and 
women  are  eligible  for  appointment  "  the  salary  paid  goes  with 
the  grade  of  the  position,  and  is  not  subject  to  variation  by 
reason  of  sex."  Cornell  does  appoint  freely  women  to  fellow- 
ships, and  I  have  never  heard  a  suggestion  that  the  income  paid 
should  be  made  to  vary  with  the  sex  of  the  incumbent. 

I  am  not  so  well  informed  as  I  should  like  to  be  concerning 
particular  local  conditions  which  you  face,  but  as  regards  the 


496         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

general  principle  that  the  position  should  determine  the  salary, 
I  am  in  hearty  accord  with  you. 

GEORGE  P.   BRISTOL, 
Jan.  i6,  1908.  Director,  Summer  Session, 

To  Miss  Lina  E.  Gano.  Cornell  University. 

My  sympathies  are  and  always  have  been  with  you  in  your 
great  movement  for  right  and  justice — for  Equal  Pay  for  Equal 
Work,  which  is  really  a  self-evident  principle.  The  only  argu- 
ments against  it  are  expediency  and  an  "  economy  which 
squanders." 

THOMAS   HUNTER, 
President  Emeritus,  Normal  College, 

I  am  with  you  in  the  great  work. 

WILLIAM  HARKNESS, 

Ex-Member,  Board  of  Education. 

As  to  the  matter  in  general,  I  do  believe  in  equal  pay  for 
equal  work.  I  think,  however,  that  the  whole  situation  as  re- 
gards the  schools  and  the  economic  conditions  of  the  city  is 
not  a  simple  but  a  complex  problem,  and  I  am  not  yet  ready 
at  this  time  to  express  an  opinion  either  pro  or  con  with  re- 
gard to  any  particular  line  of  action.  I  should  want  to  investi- 
gate it  very  carefully  and  take  counsel  of  men  and  women  ia 
whose  judgment   I   rely. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Feb.  6,  1908.  CHARLES  SPRAGUE  SMITH. 

My  Dear  Miss  Strachan — You  are  doubtless  aware  of  the 
fact  that  I  have  resigned  from  the  Board  of  Education,  my 
resignation  to  take  effect  March  i.  I  had  intended  to  resign 
in  January,  but  wished  to  remain  long  enough  to  vote  upon  and 
place  myself  on  record  as  in  favor  of  Mr.  Somers'  resolution. 
By  dating  my  resignation  as  far  ahead  as  March  i,  when  I  sent 
it  to  the  Mayor  in  January,  I  thought  I  should  have  ample 
time  for  the  resolution  to  be  acted  on,  but  Mr.  Somers'  absence 
has  unexpectedly  postponed  action. 

I  wish  to  assure  you  that  T  keenly  regret  my  inability  to 
avail  myself  of  the  privilege  and  the  honor  of  recording  myself 
with  the  progressive  minority  of  the  board,  and  I  desire  again 
to  emphasize  my  unequivocal  position  in  favor  of  the  principle 
of  equal  pay  for  men  and  women  teachers  who  perform  the 
same  work. 

I  have  found  it  necessary  to  resign  for  the  reason  that  I  could 
not  afford  to  give  the  time  required  for  conscientious  perform- 
ance of  the  work  of  the  board.  My  one  cause  for  anxiety  now 
is  that  those  who  do  not  know  me  well  may  possibly  class  me 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         497 

with    the    non-progressive    element    which    still    entertains    the 
ideas  and  habit  of  mind  of  more  than  a  half  century  ago. 

I  shall  esteem  it  a  favor  if  you  will  let  my  position  be  freely 
known,  in  any  way  and  through  any  medium  that  you  may 
deem  advisable.  The  cause  with  which  you  are  so  prominently 
and  unselfishly  identified  is  absolutely  certain  to  be  victorious 
and  you  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  those  in  oppo- 
sition are  fighting  a  losing  battle,  for  the  reason  that  they  are 
fighting  against  the  inevitable  progress  of  civilized  ideas  and 
the  perfectly  clear  and  well-defined  trend  of  future  progress. 

With  great   respect, 
Very  truly  yours, 
(Signed)  ARTHUR    HOLLICK. 

I  never  have  understood  why  persons  should  not  receive  pay 
without  regard  to  sex  for  the  same  work  and  service.  We 
make  no  discrimination  in  Syracuse  University  because  of  sex, 
either  in  the  privileges  of  the  students  or  in  the  salaries  of 
any  employed.  In  our  College  of  Fine  Arts  we  have  a  number 
of  women  on  the  faculty. 

Very  truly  yours, 
JAMES  R.  DAY, 
Chancellor,  Syracuse  University. 

You  have  had  my  fullest  sympathy  in  your  fight  for  the 
cause  of  right  and  justice  from  the  first,  and  you  can  rely  on 
my  suppoft  till  the  end,  which  I  have  no  doubt  will  be  victory. 
I  have  given  careful  attention  to  the  controversy,  and  have 
failed  to  find  a  single  logical  argument  against  your  reasonable 
demands. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  our  most  intellectual  men  now  rang- 
ing themselves  upon  your  side. 

JOSEPH  HETHERINGTON, 

Dec,  1909.  Chairman,  Local  School  Board,  District  42. 

I  have  always  believed  that  whenever  a  woman  does  the  same 
work  as  a  man  and  does  it  equally  well,  she  should  receive  a 
man's  wages.     This  is  a  general  principle. 

(Signed)  CHAS.    R.    SKINNER, 

Ex-Member  Congress;  formerly  Supt.  Public 
Instruction,  State  of  New  York;   Ex-Pres., 
National  Association  of  Teachers. 
March  24,  1908. 

I  believe  heartily  in  the  general  principle  of  equal  pay  for 
equal  work.  I  believe  further,  that  women  teachers  in  the 
City  of  New  York  should,  in  general,  receive  more  pay  than 
they  are  at  present  receiving,  but  I  am  not  able,  as  yet  at  least, 


498         EQUAL  PAY.  ^FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

to  give  assent  to  the  principle  of  "  equal  pay  "  for  teachers  as 
that  principle  is  now  interpreted. 

WALTER  L.  HERVEY, 
Dec.  19,  1909.  The  Board  of  Examiners, 

Dept.  of  Education,  New  York. 

Salaries  should  be  adjusted — not  on  a  physiological  basis,  but 
on  a  pedagogical  one.  The  Board  of  Education  has  said  that 
women  are  eligible  to  the  positions  of  principals  and  assistant 
principal.  To  pay  different  salaries  to  incumbents  of  the  same 
positions  is  to  employ  teachers  as  farmers  employ  their  help — • 
half  a  man  (a  boy),  half  pay.  Or  as  sailors  are  employed 
"  able-bodied  "  men  and  "  ordinary  "  sailors. 

2d. — A  woman  principal  gets  a  maximum  salary  of  $2500  and 
is  responsible  for  the  work  of  the  entire  school,  while  a  man 
teacher  in  her  school  with  a  class  of  30  to  35  pupils  is  paid 
$2400. 

Is  it  possible  that  $100  difference  is  consistent? 

An  assistant  principal  gets  a  maximum  of  $1600  and  shares 
the  principal's  responsibility  for  the  school,  while  a  man  teacher 
with  a  class  of  30  to  35  whom  she  supervises,  is  paid  $2400. 
Is  it  consistent  to  pay  a  supervisor  $800  less  than  a  subordi- 
nate? 

Both  a  principal  and  an  assistant  principal  must  have  su- 
perior qualifications,  and  prove  those  qualifications  by  a  pro- 
fessional examination — such  examination  being  wholly  peda- 
gogical and  not  physiological. 

These  two  positions  are  used  as  illustrations  of  every  other. 

M.  H.  BARTLETT. 

We  extend  our  hearty  endorsement.  We  employ  a  number 
of  teachers  in  our  school  and  reward  them  for  their  services 
according  to  their  ability  and  regardless  of  sex.  We  believe 
a  woman  teacher  is  a  more  important  factor  than  a  man  teacher 
in  the  educational  field.  Naturally,  her  sympathies  are  nearer 
the  hearthstone  and  she  is  more  patient;  therefore,  her  influence 
with  children  has  a  greater  tendency  to  aid  in  training  the 
young  mind.  With  these  advantages,  she  is  equal  to  or  greater 
than  the  man.  A  woman  in  her  effort  to  support  herself  de- 
serves and  should  have,  at  all  times,  the  support  of  the  sterner 
sex. 

ESTEY  AND  GARDNER, 
Merchants  and  Bankers  School,  New  York. 

*  *  *  I  am,  however,  in  accord  with  the  principle  that  the 
position  filled  should  have  a  salary  fixed  without  regard  to  the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        499 

sex  of  the  holder,  provided  that  the  logical  consequences  of  this 
doctrine  be  accepted,  to  wit,  that  equal  pay  demands  equal 
work  in  every  respect  and  equal  responsibility. 

F.  C.  BYRNES, 
Jan.  30,  1908.  Board  of  Examiners, 

Department  of  Education, 
New  York. 

Ever  since  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teach- 
ers commenced  their  campaign  for  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal 
Work,"  I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  movement,  for  it 
seemed  to  me  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  considerate  and 
favorable  attention  of  the  school  authorities,  as  well  as  of  the 
people  of  this  great  City,  and  if  the  demands  of  my  professional 
life  had  not  been  so  insistent  and  exhaustive,  I  would  have  been 
glad  to  have  added  my  voice  and  my  efforts  (feeble  though 
they  might  have  been)  in  furthering  such  a  just  cause. 

I  am  not  speaking  particularly  of  any  of  the  details  of  the 
plans  proposed  by  your  Association,  or  by  some  of  its  friends, 
but  of  "  the  general  principle  which  it  seems  to  me  is  thoroughly 
in  accord  with  that  other  and  equally  true  principle  '  a  square 
deal.' " 

I  wish  your  Association  all  success  in  its  efforts  in  behalf  of 
the  women  teachers  of  this  City,  for  I  believe  they  will  not 
only  benefit  the  women  teachers,  but  the  men  teachers  as 
well,  and  above  and  beyond  all  individuals,  that  great  system 
which  is  the  bulwark  of  our  free  institutions. 

Faithfully  yours, 

HENRY  N.  TIFFT. 

March  3,  1908.  Lawyer  and  Ex-President, 

Board   of   Education. 

Do  you  know  that  Horace  Mann  said  he  "would  as  soon  place 
an  elephant  to  brooding  chickens  as  he  would  a  man  to  teach  little 
children"? 

I  endorse  the  above.  As  "the  workman  is  worthy  of  his 
hire,"  let  the  women's  salaries  be  commensurate  with  work 
accomplished,  but  do  not  pull  down  the  salaries  of  the  men  to 
equalize. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Feb.  25,  1907.  I.  B.  POUCHER,  A.  M.,  Pd.  D., 

Principal,  State  Normal  and  Training  School. 

Hon.  Member  of  Assembly, 
My  Dear  Mr.  Lee: 
Your  reason  for  not  favoring  the  Equal  Pay  Bill,  viz.,  "The 


500         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

city  cannot  afford  it  this  year,"  sets  me  wondering;  if  you  really 
know  what  it  really  will  cost — or,  are  you  depending  upon  the  men 
for  your  estimate? 

If  so,  I  beg  to  state  you  are  laboring  under  a  very  false  im- 
pression. 

Our  leader,  Miss  Strachan,  formerly  head  teacher  of  mathe- 
matics in  the  Brooklyn  Training  School,  has  proved  con- 
clusively, using  city  records,  that  the  extra  mill  tax  will  aggre- 
gate a  sum  of  over  six  millions  of  dollars. 

This  is  ample  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  bill. 

Perhaps  you  feel  that  the  individual  taxpayer  cannot  aflEord 
it.     Has  he  said  so? 

Assuredly  not.  Consider,  if  you  will,  the  weighty  signifi- 
cance of  the  many  boards  of  trade,  tax-payers'  associations,  dry 
goods  establishments,  labor  unions,  clubs,  noted  men  and 
women — not  to  mention  the  thousands  and  thousands  of  signa- 
tures willingly  given  by  taxpayers  throughout  the  entire  city — 
that  have  signified  their  loyal  support  to  this  most  worthy 
cause. 

Does  not  all  this  forcibly  manifest  the  desire  of  the  people 
to  pay  cheerfully,  in  the  cause  of  justice,  the  cost,  each  year, 
say  of  a  few  theater  or  opera  tickets? 

"  Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny." 

Taxation  with  representation  unheeding  the  demands  of  the 
people  is,  well,  what  is  it?     Better  or  worse  than  tyranny? 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  unit  of  the  state — the 
family. 

If  a  dear  one  is  stricken  with  some  serious  physical  illness, 
what  is  it  we  immediately  do,  no  matter  how  humble  the  cir- 
cumstances or  how  empty  the  purse? 

We  hail  the  very  best  physician,  employ  a  high-salaried 
nurse,  purchase  expensive  medicines,  follow  this,  in  many  cases, 
with  consultations,  operations,  and  health-seeking  journeys, 
realizing  that  no  effort  or  expense  is  too  great  to  restore  health. 

If  it  be  a  mental  disease  the  same  course  is  pursued. 

How  about  an  insidious  moral  disease  like  injustice?  Is  not 
prompt  and  efficient  treatment  of  vital  importance  here  also? 

Surely  the  representatives  of  the  largest  city  of  the  new 
world,  and  the  leading  state  of  the  Union,  should  set  the  ex- 
ample, and  once  having  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the  "  glaring 
inequalities  "  that  have  existed  for  some  eight  years  in  the  pay- 
ment of  the  city's  and  state's  best  servants — the  teachers, — 
proceed  to  put  a  speedy  end  to  such  conditions. 

Countless  centuries — aye,  back  even  as  far  as  Plato — have 
proved  beyond  question  that  the  corner  stone  of  every  true 
and  lasting  republic  is  justice. 

Mar.  26,  1908.  ANNA  L.  McGUIRE. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         501 


THE  EQUAL  PAY  QUESTION 

Miss  Jeliffe  of  the  Girls'  High  School  Presents  Logical  Arguments 
on  Behalf  of  Her  Sex 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

Women  are  employed  in  the  public  school  system  of  Greater 
New  York  in  numbers  overwhelming  as  compared  with  the 
number  of  men.  There  are  three  possible  causes  for  this: 
First,  they  are  better  teachers;  second,  it  costs  the  city  less  to 
employ  them;  third,  they  are  more  willing  to  enter  a  profession 
in  which  the  amount  of  work,  the  amount  of  drudgery,  the 
amount  of  monotony  is  so  large  compared  with  resulting  emol- 
ument and  renown. 

The  first  hypothesis  is  a  debatable  one.  It  is  probable  that 
the  capacities  of  men  and  women  as  regards  teaching  balance 
very  fairly,  except  in  the  matter  of  patience  and  willingness 
to  dwell  on  detailed  drill  work.  In  this  last,  I  think,  it  will  be 
generally  considered  that  women  excel. 

The  second  reason  is  manifestly  true  at  present.  Now,  if 
there  is  no  choice  between  the  teaching  capacities  of  men  and 
women,  then  the  pay  should  not  show  partiality.  If  New  York 
feels,  on  the  other  hand,  that  men  are  better  teachers,  then  the 
Board  of  Education,  despite  the  enormous  appropriation  of  city 
funds,  is  supplying  an  inferior  article  to  the  people  of  New 
York  City  on  the  ground  of  cheapness.  Surely  New  York  City 
should  object  to  this.  If  the  city  is,  however,  satisfied  with 
the  quality  of  the  work  and  with  the  results  obtained  by  the 
present  educational  force,  should  it  not  then,  in  justice,  pay  that 
force  what  it  considers  the  fair  wage  in  the  case  of  a  man? 
Fully  as  many  women  now  have  to  be  supporting  factors  in 
families  as  do  men.  Only  less  satisfactory  work  on  their  part 
should,  therefore,  occasion  less  satisfactory  pay. 

In  the  third  place,  the  Board  of  Education  employs  more 
women,  partly  because  more  women  fit  themselves  for  this  pro- 
fession. This  state  of  affairs  would  seem  to  indicate  that  men 
are  not  so  much  drawn  to  the  profession  as  women  are.  They 
are  not  drawn  to  it,  possibly,  because  they  feel  in  themselves 
no  fitness  for  it,  or  because  it  is  a  badly  paid  profession,  or 
because  it  offers  no  resulting  renown  comparable  to  work  re- 
quired. 

Suppose  the  first  reason  to  be  the  true  reason;  then  women 
are  granted  as  superior  teachers,  and  should  receive  superior, 
not  inferior,  pay.  Suppose  the  second  reason  be  true:  then 
surely  the  woman  has  a  right  to  complain,  for  she  is  worse 
paid  than  the  man.     If,  however,  the  third  reason  be  the  cor- 


502         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

rcct  one,  then  a  woman  who  willingly  undergoes  the  work,  and 
foregoes  the  renown,  should  at  least  get  material  compensation 
adequate  to  her  efforts;  and  she  asks  not  for  pay  superior  to 
a  man's,  but  simply  equal  to  his. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  question  is  reduced  to  the  fol- 
lowing: Since  men  do  not  willingly  enter  the  profession,  either 
from  lack  of  capacity  or  because  the  emolument  and  renown 
are  not  sufficient  to  be  tempting,  and  since  the  burden  of  edu- 
cation— the  factor  acknowledged  as  most  potent  in  modern 
civilization — is  left  on  the  shoulders  of  the  women  teachers. 
New  York  City  should  feel  it  simple  justice  to  pay  said  women 
teachers  a  wage  equal  to  that  which  she  would  consider  as 
fair  for  a  man. 

ELIZABETH  M.  JELIFFE. 

Girls'  High  School,  Brooklyn,  May  14,  1907. 

Dear  Senator  Grady. 

As  principal  for  nearly  thirteen  years  of  one  of  the  largest 
grammar  schools  for  boys  in  Manhattan,  and  as  a  public  school 
teacher  for  nearly  double  that  period,  permit  me  to  address 
you  in  reference  to  the  bill  for  the  equalization  of  salaries  of 
school  teachers. 

According  to  the  reports  published  in  this  morning's  news- 
papers, a  large  meeting  of  male  principals  and  male  teachers 
was  held  yesterday  for  the  purpose  of  voicing  their  opposition 
to  the  bill.  One  of  the  points  presented  in  the  series  of  reso- 
lutions introduced  and  adopted  at  this  meeting  was  that  in 
Germany,  88  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  were  males,  and  in 
France,  60  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  were  males.  Where  women 
are  concerned,  Germany  and  France  are  hardly  the  standards 
to  present  to  an  American  community.  Yet  it  was  certainly 
in  keeping  with  the  selfish,  unmanly,  boorish  spirit  which  ac- 
tuated these  male  teachers  and  male  principals,  that  such  a 
comparison  should  be  made.  Anyone  at  all  conversant  with 
the  status  of  Woman  in  the  countries  named,  might  well  be 
astonished  that  women  are  permitted  to  have  any  place  at  all 
in  the  schools.  It  must  certainly  be  taken  as  a  great  conces- 
sion, or  condescension,  that  women  should  be  permitted  to 
have  any  hand  in  the  school-training  of  German  or  French 
boys  and  girls. 

Another  point  upon  which  particular  stress  was  laid  at  this 
meeting  of  male  principals  and  male  teachers,  was  the  effemin- 
ization  of  the  schools,  a  most  terrible  calamity  threatening  the 
whole  school  system  of  the  Greater  New  York.  This  dread 
disease  has  been  hinted  at  elsewhere  and  recently;  but  whether 
as  a  playful  euphemism,  or  as  a  cloak  to  hide  some  real  con- 
ditions of  decay  in  our  school  system,  deponent  sayeth  not. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  symptoms  of  decay,  symp- 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         503 

toms  which  have  been  apparent  for  years  back;  but  while  your 
male  teachers  and  your  male  principals  say  it  is  too  much 
Woman  in  the  schools,  there  are  Men  Teachers  and  Men  Prin- 
cipals— and  others — who  aver  that  the  marking  system  has  let 
loose  upon  the  schools  a  horde  of  mollycoddles  who  will  reel 
off  pedagogics  and  psychology  by  the  yard,  but  are  as  soft  as 
putty  in  the  hands  of  the  ordinary  New  York  school-boy. 

Of  thirty-two  teachers  in  my  school,  twenty-one  are  Women. 
Among  these  women  are  a  dozen  who  are  the  equals  of  any 
dozen  male  teachers  ia  the  system,  and  are  vastly  superior  to 
a  dozen  dozen  of  the  bunch  of  male  teachers  who  exploited 
themselves  yesterday  so   uproariously. 

If  a  woman  will  do  as  effective  work  as  a  man  will  do,  she 
should  be  paid  a  wage  equal  to  the  wage  paid  to  the  man. 
This  principle  is  already  recognized  in  two  departments  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  in  direct  contradiction  to  a  statement  by 
Dr.  Conroy.  There  are  three  women  District  Superintendents, 
each  of  whom  is  getting  a  salary  similar  to  the  salary  of  the 
men  District  Superintendents.  In  the  Truancy  Department  are 
six  women  Attendance  Officers,  each  of  whom  is  getting  a 
salary  equal  to  the  salary  of  any  of  the  men  Attendance  Officers. 

So  there  you  are. 

Pay  for  Service,  not  pay  for  Sex. 

You  are  at  liberty  to  make  such  use  of  this  letter  as  you  see 
fit. 

JOSEPH  J.  CASEY. 

Hon.  George  B.  McClellan, 

Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

*  *  *  If  I  convey  the  idea  from  what  I  have  written  that 
women  teachers  can  do  the  work  that  men  teachers  do,  and  do 
it  equally  as  well — a  doctrine  that  I  firmly  believe  and  have 
always  believed — it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  having  you  fall 
in  with  that  idea,  but  to  accept  it  as  an  axiom  and  to  apply  it  to 
the  principle — pay  for  service,  not  pay  for  sex. 

I  think  you  are  broad  minded  enough  to  accept  the  principle. 
The  question  of  salary,  therefore,  becomes  an  ethical  one  which 
should  not  be  measured  by  dollars  and  cents  "  Fiat  justitia,  ruat 
coelum"  cannot  find  an  apter  application  than  here. 

In  conclusion  permit  me  to  say  that  I  am  Principal  of  Public 
School  83  in  East  iioth  Street,  with  a  corps  of  thirty-two  teach- 
ers, twenty-one  of  whom  are  women.  I  have,  therefore,  reason 
and  experience  for  everything  I  have  written. 

JOSEPH  J.  CASEY. 

May,  1909. 

I  wish  you  God-speed  in  your  efforts  for  "  Equal  pay  for 
Equal  work."    I  have  been  with  women  in  the  public  schools— 


504         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

whose  influences  were  soothing,  refining,  uplifting;  under  whose 
inspiration,  noble  characters  were  formed  or  developed.  Per- 
haps it  was  my  fortune  to  have  been  among  such  women. 
I  have  been  with  men,  gross,  treacherous,  shallow,  whose  influences 
tended  to  stunt  the  moral  growth— moral,  in  its  broadest  sense—- 
of  the  sensitive  natures  entrusted  to  their  moulding.  Perhaps  it 
was  my  mishap  to  have  been  among  such  men.  We  form  our 
judgments  according  to  our  experiences,  and  my  experiences,  reach- 
ing back  longer  than  you  might  care  to  know,  are  responsible  for 
my  adhesion  to  your  cause.  Very  respectfully  yours, 
April  6.  1910.  JOSEPH  J.  CASEY. 


CALIFORNIA  SCHOOL  TEACHERS 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Sun—Sir :  "  Poor  little  New  York,"  as  a 
Los  Angeles  paper  recently  called  the  metropolis,  was  never  known 
(according  to  an  eastern  publication)  to  originate  a  reform  nor  an 
improvement  of  importance.  She  does,  however,  sometimes  adopt 
the  more  advanced  ideas  of  other  cities  and  "go  them  one  better," 
enlarging  upon  them  with  all  the  resources  at  her  command. 

Just  now  she  is  suffering  throes  of  anguish  over  the  school  salary 
question,  that  was  settled  long  ago,  peaceably,  fairly  and  with  no 
wild  cries  from  a  public  about  to  be  ruined,  by  the  laws  of  one  of 
the  younger  States  of  the  Union. 

When  I  went  to  California  to  live,  in  1878,  I  found  that  three 
grades  of  certificates  were  issued  by  the  State  to  teachers,  after 
rigorous  examination,  and  each  grade  commanded  a  fixed  salary. 
It  made  no  difference  whether  the  teacher  was  male  or  female, 
each  position  had  its  allotted  pay,  and  could  be  secured  by  any  one 
duly  qualified.  The  schools  of  that  far-away  State  were  then 
ranked  among  the  best  in  this  country,  and  they  have  kept  pace 
with  the  times.  There  has  been  no  worrying  about  "  lack  of  mas- 
culine influence  on  the  growing  boy,"  no  injury  to  men  teachers, 
no  inordinate  taxation;  in  fact,  the  arrangement  has  always  been 
accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  with  that  broad  and  generous  treat- 
ment of  women  which  is  characteristic  of  western  communities, 
and  it  amuses  Californians  now  to  read  of  the  tempest,  the  dire 
forebodings  aroused  by  an  effort  to  accomplish,  in  the  greatest  city 
of  the  United  States,  what  is  to  them  a  thing  scarcely  admitting 
of  argument, 

"  Poor  little  New  York  "  indeed !  "  Poor  "  in  her  professed  in- 
ability to  "  meet  the  expense."  "  Little  "  in  her  frantic  clinging  to 
rulings  of  a  bygone  era.  Can't  she  brush  down  the  cobwebs, 
broaden  her  mental  horizon  and  keep  step  with  the  progressive 
people  of  this  twentieth  century  P—Qara  S.  Ellis,  New  York,  May 
9,  1907. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         505 


SUPPLY    AND   DEMAND    IN    EDUCATION 

It  might  be  suggested  to  Mr.  Edgar  L.  Levey,  whose  recent  let- 
ter to  the  New  York  Sun  was  quoted  at  length  in  the  Educational 
Review  for  February,  that  neither  abuse  of  one's  opponents  nor 
dogmatic  assertion  constitutes  argument.  Perhaps  the  "grotesque 
propaganda "  of  the  women  teachers  "  excites  disgust,"  perhaps 
their  supporters  are  guilty  of  "  opportune  sycophancy,"  the  tax- 
payers of  "  flaccid  indifference,"  the  public  of  "  stupid  unconcern," 
but  no  set  of  people  who  are  whole-heartedly  convinced  of  the 
justice  of  their  cause  may  be  denominated  "  hypocrites " — except, 
of  course,  in  a  Levitical  sense. 

"  The  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers,"  says  Mr, 
Levey,  "  would  have  the  city  ignore  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
Shall  this  law  also  be  ignored  in  all  the  other  city  departments  in 
the  fixing  of  salaries?  Shall  it  also  be  ignored  in  the  purchase  of 
materials  and  supplies?  Wliat  limit,  if  any,  shall  be  set  to  this 
new  standard  of  privilege  which  is  to  turn  our  bureaucracy  into  a 
veritable  aristrocracy  ?  " 

In  this  statement  Mr.  Levey  compares  things  which  are  not 
comparable — rather  an  elementary  mistake  in  logic.  The  years  of 
special  training  required  of  teachers,  as  well  as  the  exacting  and, 
the  old-fashioned  among  us  still  think,  holy  nature  of  their  work, 
would  seem  to  put  them  in  a  different  class  from  the  unskilled 
laborers  employed  by  the  city — snow-shovelers,  for  example.  Nor 
can  they  be  lumped  with  "  materials  and  supplies  "  any  more  than 
you  can  multiply  nights  by  cats  and  get  eternal  bliss. 

The  law  of  supply  and  demand,  the  fetish  of  commercial ists  in 
education,  is  continually  being  modified  or  even  set  aside  in  its 
own  particular  domain,  that  of  trade.  Sweat-shop  labor  is  cheap, 
the  commodities  produced  by  it  may  be  obtained  at  a  ridiculously 
low  price,  and  yet  there  are  many  persons  who  cheerfully  pay  more 
for  the  same  article  out  of  considerations  of  humanity,  or,  perhaps, 
dread  of  infectious  disease.  Child  labor  is  cheap  and  the  supply 
on  the  increase,  but  the  statutes  of  many  states  make  its  use 
illegal.  There  is,  too,  even  in  the  world  of  trade,  such  a  thing  as 
ultimate  gain  to  be  set  over  against  the  immediate  receipt  of  dollars 
and  cents.  And  so,  shorter  working  hours,  sanitary  conditions 
in  workrooms,  holidays,  have  come  to  modify  the  rigidity  of  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand. 

In  so  complex  a  matter  as  education  the  rigidity  of  the  law 
must  be  still  further  modified.  Why  is  a  Sabbatical  year  given  in 
many  colleges?  Plenty  of  professors  could  be  obtained  to  work 
year  in  and  year  out  with  long  hours  and  large  classes,  until  they 
degenerated  into  mechanical  drudges.  But  here  the  college  admin- 
istration is  wise  and  sees  that  leisure  for  travel,  wider  reading, 
periods  of  uninterrupted  research  increase  a  teacher's  worth  and 


5o6         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

so  benefit  the  college.  Nor  would  the  city  "  violate  the  specific 
pledge  of  trusteeship  toward  its  taxpayers  proclaimed  in  the 
charter  "  if  it  were  to  increase  the  salaries  of  its  women  teachers 
so  that  they  might  be  enabled  to  secure  more  of  the  daily  com- 
forts of  life  than  a  hall  bedroom  implies  and  make  reasonable 
provision  for  old  age. 

As  to  Mr.  Levey's  hint — evidently  thrown  in  for  good  measure^ 
that  women  teachers  use  a  large  part  of  their  salary  for  "  mere 
pin  money,"  the  present  writer  showed  in  a  letter  to  the  Evening 
Post,  dated,  February  20,  1908,  that  in  one  of  the  city  high  schools 
ninety-one  per  cent,  of  the  women  had  one  or  more  persons  de- 
pendent upon  her,  either  wholly  or  in  part.  In  most  cases  it  was 
an  aged  father  or  mother,  in  some  the  education  of  younger 
brothers  or  sisters.  One  woman  held  herself  largely  responsible 
for  the  five  children  of  a  dead  brother,  and  another  took  entire 
care  of  a  bed-ridden  mother  and  aged  aunt.  Nor,  as  was  there 
said,  is  this  outlay  in  the  nature  of  an  investment  (unless  it  be 
treasure  in  heaven).  A  man  looks  to  his  children  for  support  in 
old  age,  but  those  for  whom  a  woman  cares — for  the  most  part — 
will  be  gone  when  she  is  old  and  needs  help. 

"  If,"  says  Mr.  Levey,  "  women  in  the  public  schools  can  properly 
perform  all  the  functions  of  men  at  a  smaller  wage,  then  in  the 
interest  of  honest  and  economical  government  by  all  means  get  rid 
of  the  men.  But  this  is  not  claimed."  It  is  precisely  what  is 
claimed  and  all  that  is  claimed.  Otherwise,  "  Equal  Pay  for 
Equal  Work "  would  be  the  fallacy  Mr.  Levey  calls  it.  Women 
are  doing  the  same  grade  of  work  as  men  and  are  doing  it  as 
satisfactorily.  They  are  doing  as  much  work,  in  some  cases  even 
more  (see  a  letter  by  the  present  writer,  also  to  the  Evening  Post, 
dated  December  14,  1908).  Nor  was  there  ever  any  question  of 
their  equal  or  superior  fitness  until  the  matter  came  to  be  one  of 
dollars  and  cents.  It  is,  therefore,  a  violation  of  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  to  have  any  men  teachers  in  the  public  schools. 
Why  are  they  there?  Because,  contrary  to  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand,  it  is  thought  that  the  influence  of  men,  at  least  some  men, 
is  needed  in  education,  and  also — this  is  never  omitted — they  are 
needed  to  superintend  athletics,  which,  by  the  way,  could  be  looked 
after  much  better  by  a  paid  coach. 

In  conclusion  we  are  told  that  for  the  city  "to  yield  to  these 
demands  (of  the  women  teachers)  means  an  immense  obstacle  to 
the  solution  of  its  many  pressing  problems  of  civic  progress  and 
development."  This  would  be  serious  if  it  were  true.  Two 
measures  of  relief  suggest  themselves :  first,  instead  of  putting  up 
more  school  buildings  at  an  enormous  cost  and  packing  children 
into  them  like  sardines  to  justify  the  expense,  smaller  and  less  ex- 
pensive buildings  might  be  put  up,  or  buildings  already  standing 
might  be  bought  and  turned  into  schoolrooms.  It  does  not  take 
much  fitting  up  to  make  a  schoolroom,  given  a  real  teacher,  a 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         507 

class  of  children,  and  a  blackboard,  if,  that  is  to  say,  education  is 
the  primary  object  in  view  and  not  the  creation  of  huge  educa- 
tional machines  too  large  for  one  man  to  handle.  Second,  and  this 
is  a  hard  saying,  if  sinecures  held  by  politicians  (like  Cicero, 
nomina  non  nomino)  were  lopped  off;  if  appropriations,  repairs, 
and  supplies  were  lifted  out  of  the  realm  of  farce;  as,  for  in- 
stance, certain  Windsor  chairs  worth  about  sixty  cents,  for  which 
the  city  paid  twenty-two  dollars  and  a  half  each;  if,  in  a  word, 
the  interests  of  taxpayers  were  protected  against  graft,  "honest" 
and  otherwise,  the  city  would  save  enough  money  to  meet,  and 
more  than  meet,  the  just  demands  of  the  women  teachers.  Here 
is  a  possibility  of  "  civic  progress  and  development,"  and,  at  the 
present  writing,  it  almost  seems  as  though  it  were  going  to  be 
realized.  ELIZABETH  DU  BOIS  PECK. 


PROFESSION  OR  "JOB." 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Evening  Post—Sir:  A  few  years  ago 
teaching  was,  at  least  occasionally,  spoken  of  as  a  profession,  and 
its  members  compared,  in  respect  to  income,  with  ministers,  doctors, 
lawyers,  or  artists.  In  all  of  these  last-named  professions  women 
come  into  competition  with  men  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  Men 
have  the  advantage  of  custom  and  of  numbers,  but,  in  the  last 
analysis,  income  is  dependent  on  the  training,  experience,  and 
skill,  not  at  all  on  sex.  Last  spring  a  writer  in  the  Evening  Post 
gave  a  long  table  in  which  the  "wage"  of  teachers  was  com- 
pared with  that  of  clerks,  stenographers,  paper-box  makers,  and 
others.  With  no  disparagement  to  these  occupations,  it  seems 
economically  sound  to  argue  that  the  special  training  required  of 
the  teacher  should  put  his  calling  upon  a  somewhat  higher  plane, 
and  make  such  comparisons  inappropriate. 

Now,  in  the  issue  of  the  Evening  Post  for  February  17  I  read 
this  statement,  signed  E.  S.  S. :  "  Economic  law  and  the  well-be- 
ing of  society  set  the  wage  of  the  adult  male  at  the  'living  wage' 
of  the  family — this  quite  regardless  whether  the  individual  man  is 
even  married."  That  is  to  say,  society  owes  every  "  adult  male," 
no  matter  how  ignorant,  no  matter  how  dull,  no  matter  how  de- 
praved, every  "  adult  male,"  enough  money  to  support  a  family — 
even  if  he  has  no  family.  I  do  not  so  understand  economic  law. 
The  work  of  the  world  comes,  in  the  long  run,  into  the  hands  of 
those  who  can  do  it  best.  This  is  true  from  the  philosopher  and 
inventor,  at  one  end  of  the  line,  to  the  coal-heaver  at  the  other. 
The  more  highly  specialized  the  work  is,  the  more  it  depends  on 
fitness  alone.  Here  is  the  reason  that  E.  S.  S.  and  those  like  him 
are  anxious  to  be  classed  with  stenographers  and  box-makers, 
rather  than  physicians  or  writers.  We  can  see  that  in  making  a 
paper  box  the  fact  that  a  man  is  a  father  might  have  weight,  as  it 


5o8         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

would  not  in  operating  for  appendicitis,  for  instance,  or  writing 
an  article  on  high  finance. 

The  question  of  equal  pay  has  been  argued  again  and  again, 
logically,  economically,  sometimes  even  politely.  But  all  the  di- 
verse arguments  reduce  themselves  to  just  two  propositions.  The 
first  is,  Are  women  as  fit  in  every  way  as  men,  for  the  position 
of  teacher  in  the  public  schools?  and  the  second,  Granted  their 
equal  fitness,  is  it  economically  sound  to  make  their  salaries  equal? 

(i)  Woman's  equal  fitness  as  a  teacher  was  not  seriously  ques- 
tioned by  the  male  members  of  the  profession  until  it  became  a 
matter  of  dollars  and  cents.  Men  teachers  sat  in  their  classrooms, 
in  the  good  old  days,  and  read  the  morning  paper;  in  difficult 
cases  of  discipline,  they  called  on  the  woman  in  the  next  room 
for  aid,  or  resorted  to  corporal  punishment,  sometimes  even  dis- 
tressingly severe  (I  am  not  giving  imaginary  instances).  Again, 
a  serious  comparison  of  the  results  of  examinations  in  classes 
of  the  same  grade  taught  by  men  and  by  women  has  always 
shown  equal  intellectual  fitness  on  the  part  of  the  women.  And 
the  children  themselves  have  paid  as  much  respect  to  their  women 
as  to  their  men  teachers.  This  is  important.  Children  know 
whether  a  teacher  is  just,  sincere,  and  interested  in  their  welfare, 
or  the  reverse.  They  are  even  shrewder  judges  of  ability  and 
character  than  their  elders. 

For  the  last  few  months  I  have  never  heard  the  subject  of 
equal  pay  argued  to  a  finish  but  the  male  disputant,  beaten  by 
facts  and  statistics  from  one  outpost  of  argument  to  another, 
at  last  took  refuge  in  athletics.  Women  may  be  able  to  teach 
mathematics,  English,  Latin,  but  where  are  they  in  athletics? 
"  Down  and  out."  And  what  are  mathematics,  English  amd  Latin 
in  comparison  with  athletics?  It  is  that  their  children  may  be- 
come proficient  in  shooting,  football,  and  cross-country  running 
that  the  taxpayers  of  this  city  foot  the  enormous  school  bills. 

(2)  Is  it  economically  sound  to  make  the  salaries  equal?  Here 
is  where  the  "  family "  comes  in.  Is  a  man,  because  he  has  a 
family,  or  may  have  a  family,  to  receive  money  for  that  family 
rather  than  for  his  services?  The  statement  has  been  made  that 
80  per  cent,  of  the  men  teachers  in  the  high  schools  of  this  city 
are  married.  In  one  of  the  high  schools  (for  which  the  statis- 
tics are  at  hand),  the  number  of  women  with  some  family  obli- 
gation is  91  per  cent.  "  That  is  as  it  should  be,"  says  E.  S.  S. 
"  A  single  woman  should  be  productive  to  society  as  well  as  self- 
supporting."  "  A  single  woman  " — "  ah,  there's  the  rub !  "  But  I 
have  known  instances  in  which  the  duty  of  supporting  an  aged 
father  or  mother  stood  in  the  way  of  a  woman's  marriage,  while 
her  brother,  so  fortunate  as  to  be  an  "  adult  male,"  had  married 
and  was  raising  the  aforesaid  "  family."  Again,  as  has  been 
said,  a  man  looks  to  his  children  for  support  in  old  age;  the 
money  he  spends  on  them  is  an  investment  for  the  future,  while 


EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         509 

those  for  whom  a  woman  cares — for  the  most  part — will  be  gone 
when  she  is  old  and  needs  help.     .     .     . 

Finally,  although  the  "gross  inequalities"  in  the  salaries  of 
men  and  women  teachers  are  well  known,  perhaps  it  is  not  so 
well  known  that  when  a  vacancy  is  to  be  filled  or  a  first  appoint- 
ment made  to  one  of  the  higher  positions,  a  man  is  selected  even 
for  a  girls'  school  (where  there  are  no  athletics)  though  a 
woman  may  precede  him  on  the  eligible  list,  may  have  been  wait- 
ing longer,  etc.,  etc.  As  a  case  in  point,  five  years  ago  next 
June,  the  present  writer  received  a  first  assistant's  license  along 
with  two  men  and  two  other  women.  After  four  years,  when  one 
man  had  been  appointed  and  the  other  refused  to  take  a  position 
offered,  but  none  of  the  women  appointed,  a  second  examination 
in  the  subject  was  held,  to  which  men  only  were  admitted,  and 
of  the  nine  men  who  qualified,  all  but  one  were  appointed  before 
the  first  woman  from  the  previous  list,  although  she  stood  sec- 
ond on  that  list,  received  an  appointment. 

The  case  of  the  men  teachers  seems  from  first  to  last  a  piece 
of  special  pleading.  What  if  they  lack  knowledge  of  their  subject, 
ability  to  make  all  clear,  a  high  sense  of  honor — they  are  fathers, 
or  may  be.  This  is  taking  the  city's  money  under  false  pretences. 
Just  as  between  a  man  and  a  woman  physician,  income  from 
practice  is  a  matter  of  special  fitness,  so  it  should  be  between 
the  man  and  woman  teacher.  Let  this  fitness  be  discovered  by 
examinations,  oral  and  written,  by  tests  of  character,  by  what  you 
please,  and  then  let  the  one  that  "  makes  good  "  have  the  position. 
Let  it  be  a  matter  of  who  can  "  make  good,"  for  the  taxpayers 
have  a  right  to  the  best 

E.  H.  Dubois,  Ph.  d.. 

New  York,  February  20.  The  Morris  High  School. 

April  nth,   1910. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Outlook, 

New  York  City. 

Dear  Sir: — The  Outlook  of  April  second  had  an  editorial  on 
"  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work." 

At  an  official  meeting,  the  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of 
New  York  voted  against  equal  pay,  the  vote  standing  twenty- 
three  to  sixteen.  To  say  that  the  decision  is  final  is  to  be  absolutely 
unacquainted  with  .the  movement.  Four  years  ago  no  one  in  the 
board  supported  the  proposition.  Now  after  four  years  of  agita- 
tion, the  Board  of  Education  itself,  not  a  fraction  of  one  committee, 
gave  the  matter  a  serious  and  dignified  consideration  and  sixteen 
members  supported  it.  "  Revolutions  do  not  go  backward."  If  in 
four  years  the  women  teachers  can  gain  sixteen  supporters,  are 
they  going  to  stop?  The  vote  then  is  not  in  any  way  final.  It 
is  a  great  encouragement. 

The  three  ladies  who  voted  against  the   women   teachers  were 


510         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

new  appointees.  Their  position  in  the  community  had  shut  them 
out  from  all  contact  with  the  common  schools.  Therefore  not  as 
a  matter  of  judgment,  because  judgment  implies  knowledge,  but 
as  a  matter  of  custom  they  followed  man's  judgment.  It  takes 
an  independent  and  courageous  woman  to  help  other  women. 

One  objection  the  Outlook  presented  is  that  "  men  and  women 
cannot  do  equal  work."  Two  men  cannot  do  equal  work.  There 
are  in  the  schools  some  very  inefficient  male  teachers  and  some  of 
loose  habits,  yet  they  get  the  same  pay  as  efficient  male  teachers. 
Women  teachers  in  the  City  of  New  York  have  been  assigned  over 
and  over  again  positions  identical  with  male  teachers.  Their  work 
has  been  given  the  highest  possible  rating  again  and  again  by  male 
principals  and  male  superintendents.  Over  against  the  Outlook's 
present  opinion  these  other  opinions  have  been  reiterated  for  years. 
No  one  ever  questioned  the  equality  of  woman's  work  until  she 
asked  equal  pay  for  it. 

The  Outlook  said  one  speaker's  words  were  felicitous.  The 
speaker  was  a  new  member,  new  to  the  board,  new  to  America, 
and  full  of  more  new  ideas  than  the  Outlook  may  know.  He  is 
not  always  so  hostile  to  women.  Of  course  women  teachers  of 
experience  whom  he  gallantly  called  in  this  same  speech  "  semi- 
derelicts,"  awaken  his  loudest  condemnation.  But  let  the  hotels  of 
New  York  City  turn  out  a  man  and  his  pseudo  wife,  and  this 
generous  member  may  open  his  doors  to  the  pair.  This  new  mem- 
ber's entire  speech  was  filled  with  complete  ignorance  of  the  school 
question. 

Next  the  article  said :  "  The  ablest  men  cannot  do  as  good  work 
in  teaching  a  kindergarte::  as  a  competent  woman."  That  is  a 
matter  of  opinion.  A  man  invented  the  kindergarten  system.  The 
Outlook  confuses  matters  of  fact  and  matters  of  opinion.  It  goes 
on  to  say :  "  The  ablest  woman  cannot  do  as  good  work  in  super- 
intending a  school  of  boys  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  as  a  com- 
petent man."  The  Outlook  thinks  so.  It  is  a  matter  of  fact  that 
the  development  of  the  playgrounds  and  recreation  centers  was 
in  the  hands  of  a  woman  until  she  died.  These  activities  controlled 
boys  of  the  age  mentioned,  and  this  work  is  spoken  of  most  highly 
by  the  associates  and  the  official  superiors  of  this  woman.  Further 
than  this  it  is  a  matter  of  fact  that  "  superintending  a  school  of 
boys  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  "  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  equal 
pay  question.  Such  a  school  is  a  boys'  high  school  and  is,  and 
always  has  been,  in  the  charge  of  a  male  principal.  The  super- 
intending of  a  group  of  schools  containing  boys,  or  girls,  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  number  of  persons,  men  and  women,  and  these  super- 
intendents receive  equal  pay  already. 

In  its  third  objection  the  Outlook  was  in  error.  Briefly  it  says, 
if  equal  pay  were  given  "  many  women  teachers  would  be  dis- 
charged." Discharged?  Even  the  women  teachers  of  New  York 
City  enjoy  the  provision  of  Section   1089  of  the  Charter  of  the 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         511 

City  of  New  York.  The  women  teachers  do  die  or  retire,  but  they 
are  not  discharged,  for  they  cannot  be,  except  for  cause,  and  being 
a  woman  is  not  a  cause  for  dismissal. 

The  second  part  of  the  Outlook's  third  reason  says:  "Women 
are  now  doing  work  which  men  could  do  better."  How  does  the 
Outlook  know  this?  It  is  a  mere  assertion.  If  it  were  a  matter 
of  fact  what  an  arraignment  of  the  Board  of  Education!  The 
board  is  consciously  giving  the  boys  of  this  city  a  cheap  bargain- 
counter  education. 

The  third  part  of  the  Outlook's  third  objection  says  that  equaliz- 
ing by  lowering  men's  salaries  would  lead  to  an  exodus  of  men 
from  the  schools  and  under  wholly  feminine  influence  there  would 
be  an  "  exodus  of  many  male  pupils."  ^  Is  the  Outlook  sure  of 
this?  There  were  men  in  the  schools  before  the  Davis  law  raised 
the  men's  salaries  to  their  present  proportions;  and  the  boys  in 
large  numbers  leave  those  schools  which  are  now  wholly  managed 
by  men. 

PRESS  COMMITTEE, 
Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers. 

AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  THE  CLERGYMEN  OF  NEW  YORK 

CITY. 

We,  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City,  twelve  thousand  in 
number,  appeal  to  you,  the  clergymen  of  our  city,  and  ask  you  to 
bring  our  appeal  to  the  notice  of  your  congregations  by  reading 
this  letter  to  them.  We  do  not  ask  you  to  support  our  claim  or 
to  advocate  it,  but  only  to  publish  it  so  that  the  men  and  women 
of  your  churches  may  pass  upon  the  justice  of  our  cause. 

For  four  years  we  have  tried  to  get  from  our  city  government 
Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work,  and  we  have  striven  to  put  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching  on  a  Civil  Service  basis  so  that  the  work  in 
our  schools  shall  be  paid  for  irrespective  of  the  sex  of  the  worker. 

Side  by  side  with  the  -men  teachers  we  teach  the  same  subjects 
to  the  same  pupils  from  the  same  text-books  through  the  same 
hours  reaching  the  same  results  under  the  same  standards. 

In  all  the  years  of  our  struggle  for  justice  it  has  never  been 
successfully  maintained  that  our  work  is  inferior.  On  the  contrary, 
it  has  been  well-nigh  universally  acknowledged  that  schools  and 
classes  governed  and  taught  by  women  compare  favorably  with 
those  governed  and  taught  by  men  and  that  women  bring  to  the 
care  and  training  of  the  young  a  motherly  sympathy,  patience  and 
devotion  that  make  them  peculiarly  successful  in  the  high  calling 
of  education. 

Is  it  just  that  we  should  be  paid  so  much  less  than  our  male  co- 

*  See  Professor  Tbomdike's  conclusion  in  chapter  on  Feminizmtion. — G, 
C  S. 


512         EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

laborers  for  the  same  work?  Does  New  York  supply  us  with  any 
of  the  necessities  or  decencies  of  life  for  less?  Are  our  rents  and 
taxes  less?  Can  we  obtain  food  and  clothing  for  less?  Are  our 
doctors  and  lawyers'  fees  less?  Can  we  live  for  less  in  this  most 
expensive  of  all  cities  by  pleading  that  we  are  paid  less  for  our 
work  as  the  city's  servants? 

Our  obligations,  too,  are  as  heavy  as  those  of  the  men  in  respect 
to  life's  burdens  and  responsibilities.  On  us,  too,  rests  oftentimes 
the  care  of  the  aged  and  infirm ;  on  us,  too,  devolves  the  generous 
duty  of  helping  younger  relatives  to  secure  an  adequate  educa- 
tion; on  us,  too,  falls  the  expense  of  maintaining  a  home  for 
those  who  could  not,  unassisted,  escape  indigence  and  suffering. 
There  are  few  indeed  of  our  profession  who  do  not  share  an  al- 
ready insufficient  salary  with  those  who  are  more  or  less  dependent 
on  them. 

In  our  work,  in  our  expenses,  in  all  of  life's  obligations  our 
burdens  are  as  heavy  as  the  men's.  Only  in  our  pay  is  there  a 
striking  and  unjust  difference  and  it  is  this  intolerable  injustice 
we  are  striving  to  remove. 

Nor  are  we  asking  our  city  to  do  the  impossible.  New  York 
is  rich  enough,  its  revenues  are  vast  enough  to  do  justice  to  all  of 
its  employees  if  its  money  were  wisely  and  economically  managed, 
and  expended  solely  for  the  public  good.  Other  cities  and  other 
states  have  placed  their  schools  on  a  Civil  Service  basis  with 
Equal  Pay,  and  surely  New  York,  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
city  of  the  United  States,  can  afford  to  do  what  poorer  municipali- 
ties have  already  done. 

We,  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City,  base  our  appeal 
to  you,  the  clergymen  of  New  York  City,  on  the  closer  relation 
existing  between  the  work  of  pastor  and  teacher.  Without  the 
Church  Ideal,  which  is  righteousness,  and  the  School  Ideal,  which 
is  good  citizenship,  the  State  could  not  endure.  We  are  the  lay 
preachers  of  the  community.  Day  in  and  day  out  in  connection 
with  our  work  in  the  school-room  we  teach  our  boys  and  girls 
truth,  honesty,  justice,  reliability,  self-control,  obedience  to  the 
laws  and  devotion  to  duty  in  private  and  in  public  life. 

We  are  serving  the  city  faithfully  to  the  best  of  our  ability  and 
strength.  All  we  ask  of  the  city  in  return  is  Justice — the  justice 
of  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work. 

Will  not  you,  who  believe  that  Justice  is  a  law  of  the  universe, 
give  a  little  space  to  our  cause? 

JOSEPHINE   A.    RICE,    Chairman. 
CARRIE  A.   HAWTHORNE, 
HELEN  LOUISE  COHEN, 
JENNIE  V.  NAUGHTON, 
GRACE  C.  STRACHAN, 
Committee    representing     Interborough    Association    of    Women 
Teachers. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         513 

Mr.  Oliver,  Superintendent  of  Schools  in  San  Francisco,  said 
while  visiting  here  in  1907 :  "  In  San  Francisco  we  pay  both  men 
and  women  teachers  on  the  same  schedules.  We  do  not  believe 
that  a  man  is  any  better  as  a  teacher  than  a  woman.  In  fact,  we 
haven't  much  use  for  men  teachers."  When  told  of  the  women 
teachers'  fight  here,  he  said,  "  I  wish  them  all  success." 

Following  are  some  of  the  educational  associations  that  have 
formally  endorsed  "  Equal  Pay  " : 

The  Teachers'  Association  of  Troy,  Frances  J.  Galvin,  secretary, 
March  13,  1908;  Local  School  Board,  District  27;  Local  School 
Board,  District  26;  Syracuse  Grade  Teachers'  Association;  Bronx 
Teachers'  Association.  Society  of  Women  Class  Teachers;  Public 
Education  Society ;  New  York  City  Teachers'  Association ;  Heads  of 
Department  Association,  Manhattan;  Association  of  Women  Prin- 
cipals, Manhattan;  Women  Principals'  Association,  Brooklyn; 
Brookl3Ti  Teachers'  Association ;  Brooklyn  Class  Teachers'  Organ- 
ization; Queens  Teachers'  Association;  Women  High  School 
Teachers'  Association. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  March  11,  1908. 
MISS  GRACE  C  STRACHAN, 

Pres.  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers, 
293  Henry  Street,  Brookl3m. 

My  dear  Miss  Strachan: — Your  suggestion  of  a  debate  upon  the 
essential  principle  involved  in  the  equal  pay  movement  was  re- 
ceived yesterday.  While  thanking  you  for  the  courtesy,  and  ap- 
preciating the  spirit  in  which  the  proposition  is  made,  we  believe,  for 
the  following  reasons,  that  no  beneficial  result  would  follow  such  a 
public   joint  debate. 

The  question  is  one  that  affects  us  as  teachers  in  a  way  very 
different  from  the  way  in  which  the  public  deems  that  it  affects 
the  public.  While  we  as  teachers  have  the  question  so  prominently 
in  mind  during  the  present  agitation,  we  are  apt  to  feel  that  the 
public  is  deeply  sympathetic.  The  public  is  interested  somewhat 
in  the  care  of  all  of  its  servants,  more  interested  in  the  results 
attained  in  this  particular  department,  and  least  interested  in  such 
matters  as  affect  only  the  peculiar  interests  of  factions  of  its  serv- 
ing body.  Therefore,  the  audience  that  would  listen  to  a  debate 
such  as  the  one  proposed  would  be  composed  only  of  those  who 
have  a  direct  pecuniary  interest  in  the  question  involved. 

This  movement  has  already  engendered  much  of  bitterness,  due 
to  the  natural  differences  in  temperament  of  the  factions.  Since 
this  bitterness  has  hampered  materially  the  work  in  the  schools,  it 
has  been  the  policy  of  our  organization  to  avoid  a  discussion  that 
inevitably  leads  to  personalities. 

Finally,  while  appreciating  the  excellent  influence  that  you  per- 
sonally have  exerted  over  the  adherents  to  this  cause,  but  at  the 
same  time  bearing  in  mind  the  composition  of  the  audience  as  in- 


514         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

dicated  above,  as  well  as  experiences  under  similar  circumstances, 
we  believe  that  few  arguments  in  opposition  to  the  principle  would 
be  heard  by  any  one  not  very  close  to  the  speaker. 

Believing  that  a  declination  to  participate  in  the  matter  of  your 
suggestion  demanded  a  reply  that  would  give  the  reasons  for  such 
refusal,  and  believing  that  we  are  all  appreciative  of  the  growth 
of  dignity  in  the  attitude  of  both  factions,  I  thank  you. 
Very  truly  yours, 

HENRY  C.  MOORE, 
Pres.  Association  of  Male  Teachers  of  Brooklyn  and  Queens. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  April  8,  1910. 

To  the  New  York  Press: — On  March  23,  1910,  you  printed  on 
your  editorial  page  some  remarks  and  a  picture  of  "  John  Martin 
of  Grymes  Hill,  Stapleton,  S.  I.,  who  recently  was  appointed  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Education  by  Mayor  Gaynor." 

Permit  me  to  state,  as  President  of  the  Interborough  Associa- 
tion of  Women  Teachers,  that  the  figures  quoted  by  Mr.  Martin 
are  taken  from  the  schedules  proposed  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
which  schedules  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers 
has  opposed.  Mr.  Martin's  criticism,  therefore,  should  be  directed 
against  the  Board  of  Education  of  which  he  is  a  part.  It  is  un- 
fortunate that  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  should  speak 
publicly  and  write  for  publication  before  being  acquainted  with 
facts. 

Among  other  things  he  is  quoted  as  saying,  "  The  only  positions 
for  which  the  schedules  of  the  Interborough  Association  provide 
'  one  salary  for  one  and  the  same  position '  are  the  city  superintend- 
ent and  his  associate  city  superintendents,  the  district  superin- 
tendents, and  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Examiners."  The  In- 
terborough Association  has  never  included  any  of  the  above-named 
officials  in  the  schedules,  as  they  are  paid  without  reference  to  sex. 
I  might  add  "  without  reference  to  age  either."  Mr.  Martin's  refer- 
ences to  age  indicate  a  further  ignorance  of  the  schedules  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  not  only  of  this  city  but  practically  of  all 
cities:  almost  every  Civil  Service  schedule  takes  note  of  experi- 
ence. Mr.  Martin  confuses  "  age  of  schedule "  with  "  age  of 
teacher." 

The  only  connection  the  Interborough  Association  has  had  with 
the  salary  of  superintendents  has  been  that  instigated  by  myself — 
a  district  superintendent — to  prevent  the  adding  of  $1000  to  the 
salary  of  district  superintendents.  I  believe  the  claims  of  district 
superintendents  for  a  higher  salary  are  sound,  reasonable,  and 
just;  but  the  injustice  which  the  women  teachers  are  suffering  is 
the  greatest  and  the  most  dangerous  evil  in  our  salary  schedules 
and  should  be  the  first  remedied. 

GRACE  C.  STRACHAN. 
President  of  the   Interborough   Association   of   Women   Teachers. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         515 


LETTERS— LAWYERS 

Enclosed  you  will  find  resolutions  which  were  adopted  last 
evening  at  our  club  at  my  request  and  with  the  hearty  co-opera- 
tion of  Mr.  Curry,  the  leader  of  our  district.  I  hope  the  women 
teachers  of  our  city  will  get  justice  and  you  can  always  count  upon 
me  to  use  my  influence  in  their  behalf. 

March  26,  1908.  JOHN  J.  HALLIGAN. 

FAVORS  WOMEN  TEACHERS— E.  A.  TUTTLE  WILL  GIVE 

$1000  TO  A  FUND  TO  ENABLE  THEM  TO  ORGANIZE 

FOR  INCREASED  PAY 

To  the  Editors  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle : — I  see  by  the  papers  that 
the  Board  of  Education  is  preparing  to  have  an  investigation  of 
the  alleged  use  of  funds  raised  by  the  women  teachers  to  assist  in 
obtaining  legislation  to  give  them  the  same  pay  as  men  for  the 
same  services.  I  also  see  some  strong  language  used  regarding 
the  improper  use  of  funds  and  the  neglect  of  duty  on  the  part  of 
the  women  teachers.  I  have  also  read  Governor  Hughes'  veto 
message,  a  most  remarkable  piece  of  reasoning. 

I  want  to  enter  a  protest  against  what  I  deem  gross  injustice 
toward  the  women  teachers,  and  also  I  want  to  protest  against 
that  form  of  equity  and  justice  which  is  based  upon  the  doctrine 
that  "might  makes  right."  Oh,  mighty  man!  it  is  hard  to  sur- 
render the  prerogative  of  beating  woman.  Time  was  when  men 
could  not  only  beat  and  enslave,  but  could  also  kill  women. 
While  that  may  not  be  lawful  now,  man  still  adheres  to  the  re- 
finement of  the  same  principle,  and  still  beats  woman — by  deny- 
ing her  the  right  to  vote,  the  right  to  be  paid  equally  with  men  for 
performing  equal  services,  the  right  to  make  a  living  in  some 
avocations,  the  right  of  equality  anywhere  if  it  interferes  with 
men's  selfish  interests. 

The  governor's  message  on  the  equal  pay  bill  denies  justice 
and  equity  to  some  thousands  of  women  teachers  in  Greater  New 
York  because,  forsooth,  all  the  women  teachers  throughout  the 
state,  nurses  and  attendants  in  other  public  or  quasi-public  insti- 
tutions, did  not  join  in  the  request  for  justice,  and  equity,  and 
that  by  signing  the  bill  he  would  not  administer  justice  and  equity 
to  everybody  alike. 

Consider  only  for  a  moment  how  futile  an  effort  would  have 
been  by  teachers  in  small  communities  to  have  secured  legislation 
on  this  subject,  and  consider  what  a  hue  and  cry  would  have 
been  raised  if  the  women  teachers  of  New  York  City  had  en- 
deavored to  organize  the  women  teachers  of  the  state  as  well  as 
other  female  workers,  to  have  them  join  in  an  effort  to  secure 
equal  pay  for   equal  services.     It   is   rarely  that  universal  justice 


5i6        EQUAL  PAY  'FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

is  done  by  any  act  of  legislation,  but  if  a  large  measure  of  justice 
and  right  be  accomplished  by  a  single  act  of  legislation,  it  is  no 
valid  objection  that  it  is  not  universal  in  its  operations. 

Now,  as  to  the  proposed  or  threatened  action  of  out-  highly 
developed  board  of  education.  Is  there  a  man  on  that  board 
who  honestly  believes  that  the  women  teachers  of  this  city  have 
used  money  improperly  to  influence  legislation  in  their  behalf? 
If  so  let  him  who  is  without  fault  cast  the  first  stone.  I  doubt 
if  any  man  in  this  community  believes  that  any  person  threatening 
suspensions  or  dismissals  of  the  women  teachers  because  they 
sought  to  obtain  justice  and  fair  treatment  would  hesitate  or  re- 
frain from  using  methods  and  means  far  less  defensible  than  any 
used  by  the  women  teachers  to  accomplish  any  selfish  purpose  for 
gain  or  advancement. 

Many  years  ago  I  taught  school  for  several  years.  I  believe 
I  know  something  of  the  character  and  ability  of  women  teachers. 
I  believe  in  nine  positions  out  of  ten  the  average  woman  teacher 
will  do  better  work  than  the  average  man  teacher.  I  believe  the 
women  teachers  to  be  the  most  poorly  paid  and  poorly  appreciated 
public  servants  in  this  country.  I  believe  also,  that  the  men 
teachers  are  not  properly  paid  nor  appreciated,  but  I  despise  the 
men  teachers  of  this  city,  in  so  far  as  they  have  shown  a  selfish, 
greedy  and  unmanly  opposition  to  the  equal  pay  bill. 

I  do  not  often  care  to  express  my  feelings  in  a  letter  to  a 
newspaper,  but  I  feel  so  bitterly  indignant  over  the  injustice  and 
oppression  that  have  been  disclosed  in  connection  with  this  equal 
pay  matter  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  recommending  to  the 
teachers  of  this  city  and  this  state  that  they  organize  at  once,  in 
this  city  and  throughout  the  state,  so  that  they  may  meet  the 
weighty  objections  of  our  governor's  veto  message,  and  also  that 
they  may  no  longer  have  to  beg  for  common  justice  and  fair 
dealing,  but  so  that  they  may  stand  erect  and  demand  and  secure 
their  rights  in  this  matter.  I  will  gladly  contribute  $1000  to  a 
fund  to  be  used  to  defray  the  necessary  expenses  of  an  organization 
of  the  women  teachers  of  this  city  and  state,  to  the  end  that  they 
may  compel  selfish,  greedy  man  to  give  them  what  is  their  right, 
and  what,  if  decency  prevailed,  would  be  given  them  without  wait- 
ing for  the  enactment  of  a  law. 

I  am  a  rank  outsider;  I  have  absolutely  no  personal  interest 
in  this  contest,  but  I  believe  it  is  time  that  decent  men  in  this 
city  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  women  teachers,  when  all  they 
ask  is  fair  treatment  and  the  application  of  simple  justice  and 
equity.  EZRA  A.  TUTTLE. 

150  Broadway,  Manhattan,  June  14,  1907. 

I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with  your  movement.  So  far  the 
only  opportunity  I  have  had  for  comparing  women's  work  with  that 
of  my  own  sex  has  been  along  the  lines  of  stenographers,  and  al- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         517 

though  men  are  more  rapid,  they  are  undoubtedly  to  my  min3  in- 
ferior to  women  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  office  work.    .    .     . 

My  wife,  who  feels  as  strongly  on  the  subject  as  I  do,  will  be 
glad  to  give  you  any  help  she  can. 

February  28,  1908.  EDMOND  KELLY. 

I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  your  movement  and  believe  that  if 
women  are  qualified  to  teach  at  all,  they  should  receive  the  same 
pay  as  men.  Sex  should  make  no  difference,  or  if  at  all  it  should 
be  in  woman's  favor.  There  was  an  assistant  principal,  a  lady, 
in  the  high  school  I  attended  who  had  the  love  and  respect  of 
every  pupil  in  the  school,  and  three  male  principals  ran  their  courses 
in  the  school  while  the  assistant  principal  remained  until  old  age 
compelled  her  retirement,  and  her  teachings  are  remembered  by 
her  scholars  to  this  day,  while  the  teachings  of  the  principals  are 
forgotten.  Her  quiet,  unassuming  manner,  her  dignified  but  firm 
insistence  that  work  must  be  performed  by  the  scholar,  and  her 
judicious  approval  of  work  well  done,  won  the  esteem  of  every 
scholar  in  her  class.  Cling  to  the  one  idea — "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal 
Work" — you  will  win. 

February  4,  1908.  SEWARD  BAKER. 

Whether  the  salary  be  fixed  by  the  legislature  or  by  the  municipal 
government  (and  I  believe  it  should  be  fixed  entirely  by  the 
municipal  government,  if  we  are  ever  to  obtain  home  rule),  women 
should  receive  the  same  pay  as  men  for  the  same  service. 

February  4,  1908.  WILLIAM  M.  IVINS. 

I  am  in  full  sympathy  with  your  movement.  There  is  absolutely 
no  reason,  either  good  or  bad,  why  a  woman  who  does  the  same 
work  as  a  man,  in  an  equally  efficient  manner,  should  not  receive 
the  same  pay  that  a  man  does.  To  attempt  to  prove  the  contrary 
is  as  absurd  as  it  would  be  for  a  mathematician  to  sit  down  and 
try  to  prove  two  and  two  do  not  make  four,  but  that  they  make  five. 
January  30,  1908.  HENRY  A.  POWELL. 

I  believe  in  equal  pay  for  equal  work  and  hope  you  may  meet 
with  success  in  the  matter. 

March  3,  1908.  EDWARD  L.  COLLIER, 

Lawyer,  ex-member  Board  of  Education. 

All  who  are  animated  by  the  spirit  of  justice  and  fair  play  must 
admire,  prize  and  applaud  your  heroic  effort  to  blot  from  the  statute 
books  of  this  state  unjust  laws  which  deny  frail  women  equal 
compensation  for  similar  services  rendered  by  men  in  our  public 
schools.  Such  laws  are  simply  a  survival  of  that  barbaric  age 
which  deprived  women  of  their  property  rights  to  enrich  their 
lord  and  master  and  his  creditors.    Chivalric  men  have  united  with 


5i8         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

public  spirited  women  and  wiped  out  most  of  this  heritage  from 
barbarous  ages.  There  should  be  no  discrimination  in  the  wages 
of  those  who  work  in  plastic  clay  or  on  the  plastic  minds  of  our 
boys  and  girls.  Justice  is  blind  and  in  the  matter  of  pay  it  should 
recognize  no  sex  and  see  only  merit  and  excellence  in  its  public 
servants. 

Trusting  that  you  will  triumph  in  your  unremitting  toil  for  this 
betterment  of  your  co-workers. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  WARNER, 
March  26,   1908.  Attorney-at-Law. 

I  am  very  glad  to  be  identified  with  this  movement. 
J.  EDWIARD  SWANSTROM, 

Ex-President,  Board  of  Education. 

I  am  with  the  women  teachers  to  the  end  of  their  battle. 

GEORGE  FREDERICK  ELLIOTT. 

Now,  as  ever,  you  may  command  my  services  in  the  laudable 
campaign  of  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work." 

WILLOUGHBY  DOBBS, 

Ex-member  of  Assembly. 

Wishing  your  cause  every  success. 

JAMES  A.  BLANCHFIELD. 

Your  communication  of  the  26th  ultimo  received.  I  am  in  favor 
of  the  movement  for  just  salary  schedules  for  the  supervising  and 
teaching  staff  of  our  public  school  system  and  hope  the  legislature 
will  take  such  action  as  may  be  necessary  to  accomplish  the  re- 
sult for  which  you  are  working.     Sincerely, 

April  8,  1908.  HOWARD  PENDLETON,  JR. 

I  assure  you  that  I  sympathize  heartily  with  the  movement  and 
shall  be  pleased  to  avail  myself  of  every  possible  opportunity — ^no 
matter  how  humble  the  effort — to  advance  the  good  couse. 

FRANK  X.  McCAFFRY, 
January  20,  1908.  Brooklyn. 

The  teachers  have  made  a  magnificent  uphill  fight  against  tre- 
mendous odds,  and  have  laid  a  foundation  for  success  hereafter 
that  a  veto  this  year  can  only  postpone.  It  would  be  most  unusual 
to  carry  through  in  one  campaign  such  a  revolution  as  you  have 
started,  but  the  revolution  is  bottomed  on  righteousness,  and  a  veto 
will  be  only  an  additional  reason  for  further  effort. 

May  29,  1907.  HORACE  E.  DEMING. 

I  believe  in  equal  rights  to  all  and  special  privileges  to  none. 
If  a  woman  does  the  same  work  as  a  man,  be  it  in  the  coal  mines 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         519 

of  Pennsylvania  or  in  the  public  schools  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
she  is  entitled  to  the  same  pay.  If  my  daughter  does  the  same 
work  as  my  son  she  should  have  the  same  compensation.  Why 
discriminate  against  a  woman  because  of  her  sex?  I  therefore 
glory  in  the  effort  of  the  13,000  female  school  teachers  of  Greater 
New  York  who  are  conducting  a  campaign  for  equal  rights;  for 
equal  pay  for  the  same  work;  and  it  ill  becomes  men,  like  Dr. 
Parkhurst,  blinded  by  partisanship,  to  defame  them,  and  charge 
them  with  having  "  entered  into  an  unholy  alliance  with  the 
gamblers."  To  these  noble  women  I  say  God  bless  you,  God 
speed  you  in  the  effort  you  are  making  to  right  a  great  wrong, 
and  in  the  only  way  in  which  you  can  do  it,  by  the  ballot. 

Your  fathers,  your  brothers,  your  old  pupils  who  have  profited 
by  your  instruction  and  are  better  men  and  women  by  reason 
thereof,  are  with  you  in  this  fight,  and  hope  and  pray  that  you  will 
relax  no  effort  until  the  polls  close,  to  accomplish  the  purpose  for 
which  you  have  banded  yourselves  together.  Don't  be  frightened 
with  the  untruthful,  ill-tempered  charge  of  Mr.  Parkhurst,  that 
you  have  "  entered  into  an  unholy  alliance  with  the  gamblers,"  but 
gently,  quietly  and  sweetly  ask  your  maligners  and  those  whom 
you  find  are  being  influenced  by  them,  why  it  is  that  the  popular 
demand  of  last  winter  that  Wall  Street  gambling  should  be 
checked  was  sidetracked  at  Albany?  Everyone  concedes  that  it  is 
a  far  greater  evil  than  race  track  gambling.  Ask  them  why  it  is 
that  Governor  Hughes  in  his  hundreds  of  speeches  the  last  three 
months   has  not  breathed  a  word  against  the  Wall  Street  gamblers. 

It  certainly  looks  to  me  as  if  the  "unholy  alliance  with  the 
gamblers"  was  with  others  than  you. 

November  2,  1908.  FRANKLIN  COUCH. 

I  have  just  read  the  governor's  veto  message  as  printed  in  this 
morning's  Times.  I  note  that  he  agrees  with  everyone  of  our 
arguments.  He  find  no  question  of  "  Home  Rule "  involved,  nor 
of  "  Mandatory "  legislation.  He  admits  the  existence  of  gross 
inequalities  and  that  these  should  be  removed. 

He  asserts  that  the  legislature  is  the  proper  body  to  which  to 
appeal  to  correct  the  inequalities.  But  he  says  the  principle  in- 
volved— "  equal  pay  for  equal  work  " — should  be  applied  to  one  city 
or  one  locality,  or  to  one  branch  of  the  state  service.  The  state 
should  apply  it  to  all  branches  of  the  state  service  or  to  none  of 
them. 

This  is  a  plausible  argument  and  a  sound  one  in  the  abstract, 
but  if  literally  applied  in  practice  would  have  prevented  the  ac- 
complishment of  almost  every  change  for  the  better  in  govern- 
mental policy. 

It  is  really  an  obstructionist  argument  and  its  fallacy  should 
be  pointed  out  in  debate,  if  the  legislature  will  permit  debate  when 
the  bill  comes  again  before  it  after  the  veto.    The  way  to  begin 


520        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

is  to  begin,  and  if  one  waits  to  begin  till  one  can  do  it  all,  one 
will  wait  indefinitely. 

If  the  legislature  does  not  pass  the  bill  over  the  veto,  the  gover- 
nor's message  should  be  a  call  to  arms  for  a  new  campaign  to  be 
waged  in  every  city  in  the  state  for  the  application  of  the  principle 
of  simple  justice  in  the  payment  of  women  in  the  State  Civil 
Service. 

The  way  has  now  been  cleared  for  an  effective  campaign  on 
this  one  definite,  clear-cut  proposition — equal  pay  for  equal  service, 
the  same  pay  for  the  same  work. 

May  30,  1907.  HORACE  E.  DEMING. 

I  deeply  regret  that  the  women  teachers  are  obliged  to  continue 
this  struggle  for  equal  pay,  when  your  demands  are  based  on  the 
soundest  principles  of  equity.  I  fail  to  comprehend  how  people  in 
authority  can  be  so  unjust  in  this  so-called  age  of  enlightenment  and 
civilization.  The  teachers  should  bear  in  mind  that  no  victory  for 
justice,  equal  rights,  or  liberty,  has  ever  been  achieved  against  the 
stronger  oppressors  in  society  and  in  official  positions  without  a 
bitter  and  protracted  struggle,  usually  not  without  resort  to  force. 
I  trust  you  will  present  your  claims  again  to  the  Legislature  this 
year  and  that  the  Bill,  when  passed,  will  receive  the  approval  of  the 
present  Mayor,  who  has  been  trained  to  recognize  pure  justice  and 
to  administer  it  under  the  aw.  If  the  Mayor  and  the  Governor 
again  refuse  to  approve  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  in  your  behalf, 
I  hope  there  is  a  sufficiently  strong  spirit  of  unity,  mutual  interest, 
mutual  protection  and  courage  among  the  women  teachers  to  en- 
force their  demands,  as  they  can  easily  do,  without  further  begging 
the  authorities  to  do  them  justice. 

Mar.  21,  1910.  EZRA  A.  TUTTLE,  Attorney. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  New  York  Times: 

Will  you  permit  me  space  in  your  paper  to  say  that  your  comment 
upon  the  Governor's  veto  of  the  teachers'  equal  pay  bill  two  years 
ago  seems  to  justify  an  absolutely  indefensible  position?  The 
ground  taken  in  supporting  that  veto,  and  the  grounds  taken  by 
the  Governor  in  vetoing  the  bill,  were  that  the  bill  should  be 
general  in  character,  should  apply  to  all  school  teachers  all  over  the 
State,  likewise  employes  in  the  hospitals  and  other  institutions,  and 
employes  in  general  under  the  local  or  State  Government.  When 
analyzed,  this  position  means  that  you  must  never  do  right  unless 
you  can  do  universal  right;  you  must  never  do  justice  unless  you 
can  do  universal  justice;  you  must  never  correct  any  evil  unless 
you  can  correct  all  evil. 

SucH  reasoning  is  absolutely  unworthy  of  your  paper  or  of  the 
Governor  of  this  State,  and  I  hope  that  the  Governor's  mind  has 
been  so  enlightened  by  the  very  reasonable,  consistent,  and  praise- 
worthy persistency  of  the  women  teachers  during  the  last  three 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         521 

sessions  of  the  Legislature  that  he  may  appreciate  a  principle  of 
pure  and  absolute  equity.  The  women  teachers  ask  no  favors,  they 
do  not  ask  for  higher  salaries;  they  ask  to  be  paid  the  same  as 
men  for  doing  the  same  work.  If  they  are  not  capable  of  filling 
positions  in  our  schools,  it  is  inexcusable  that  they  should  be  ap- 
pointed to  such  positions;  but  if  they  are  capable  of  filling  posi- 
tions, filled  also  by  men,  they  should  have  the  same  pay  as  the  men, 
and  it  seems  idle  to  repeat  an  argument  which  is  so  plain  and  in- 
disputable. 

We  can  understand  why  a  "  peanut  politician  "  seeking  favors  of 
voters  and  political  bosses  of  greater  and  lesser  degree  should  veto 
a  bill  which  might  impose  some  additional  expense  and  some  in- 
creased taxation,  but  if  these  same  politicians  would  refrain  from 
"  grafting "  and  the  foolish  and  unnecessary  expenditure  of  millions 
in  the  administration  of  the  City  Government,  and  would  devote 
a  fraction  of  that  money  to  the  proper  payment  of  the  school 
teachers,  both  men  and  women,  it  would  greatly  redound  to  the 
honor  and  advancement  of  our  city. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  efficient,  devoted,  self-sacrificing  perform- 
ance of  duty  by  the  women  teachers  of  this  city  our  condition  in 
a  few  years  would  revert  to  that  of  the  heathen,  and  we  would  have 
no  city,  no  homes,  no  civilization.  .  .  . 

As  a  graduate  of  a  normal  school  of  this  State  thirty-four  years 
ago,  and  as  a  teacher  for  some  years — many  years  ago — and  as  a 
practicing  lawyer  in  this  city  for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  and 
as  a  taxpayer  in  this  city,  I  want  to  raise  my  voice  in  defense  of 
what  seems  to  me  the  most  iniquitous  oppression  on  the  part  of 
men,  for  no  reason  that  I  can  understand,  unless  it  may  be  that 
we  regard  might  to  be  synonymous  with  right  and  because  men 
make  the  laws — and  men  do  the  voting — and  men  govern  the  school 
board — and  men  employ  the  teachers — and  men  fix  the  salaries — 
that  men  may  do  any  injustice  that  they  please  to  the  women 
teachers,  and  because  the  women  are  powerless  they  must  submit, 
and  forsooth  be  disciplined  and  punished  for  even  requesting  that 
equity  and  justice  be  done  them. 

New  York,  May  4,  1909.  EZRA  A.  TUTTLE. 

ARGUMENT  IN  FAVOR  OF  THE  "EQUAL  PAY  BILL" 

Three  points  present  themselves  conspicuously  in  favor  of 
the  passage  of  the  bill  which  equalizes  the  salaries  of  men  and 
M'omen  teachers:  First,  the  nature  and  operation  of  an  eligible 
list,  established  on  a  Civil  Service  basis,  such  as  that  from  which 
the  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City  are  ap- 
pointed; second,  the  recognition  of  important  changes  in  eco- 
nomic conditions,  relating  to  the  occupation  of  women  in  re- 
munerative lines;  and,  third,  the  fact  that  the  present  law  regu- 
lating public  school  salaries  is  a  gross  instance  of  class  legis- 
lation. 


522         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

First:  The  object  of  an  eligible  list  established  as  a  result 
of  competitive  examination,  is  to  insure  a  given  standard  of 
merit  in  candidates  for  a  position,  and  to  eliminate  from  ap- 
pointment every  consideration  but  that  of  merit.  This  is 
plainly  shown  in  the  operation  of  eligible  lists  in  other  civic 
departments,  especially  in  those  relating  to  clerks  and  stenog- 
raphers. There  is  no  line  of  occupation  open  to  women  in 
which  overcrowding  and  consequent  competition  operate  more 
flagrantly  to  lower  remuneration;  but  as  soon  as  these  workers 
are  placed  upon  an  eligible  list  this  competition  ceases,  and  all, 
men  and  women  alike,  are  placed  upon  an  equal  footing.  To 
introduce  an  element  of  competition  among  the  candidates  on 
such  a  list  is  to  defeat  one  of  the  great  ends  of  justice  for 
which  the  list  exists. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  other  departments  of  the  school 
system  than  the  day  schools,  namely,  in  the  evening  schools 
and  summer  schools,  men  and  women  are  paid  equally  for 
positions  of  equal  rank;  and  also  worthy  of  note  that  the  pres- 
ent plan  in  the  day  schools  operates  to  keep  men  out  of  the 
system,  as  the  Board  of  Education  has  frequently  appointed 
women  in  preference  to  men  as  a  matter  of  economy. 

Second:  The  entrance  of  women  in  large  numbers  into 
fields  of  remunerative  occupation  is  often  referred  to  by  men 
as  a  willful  turning  away  from  the  conventional  lines  of  home 
life  and  duties.  Those  of  us  who  have  been  studying  these 
questions  through  intimate  association  with  large  numbers  of 
women  so  employed,  are  impressed  with  the  fact  that  in  a 
large  majority  of  cases,  probably  for  two-thirds  of  those  con- 
cerned, these  women  have  others  wholly  or  partially  depend- 
ent upon  them;  in  short,  their  work  in  remunerative  fields,  so 
far  from  being  a  repudiation  of  home  ties,  is  an  expression  of 
devotion  to  home  and  family. 

This  indicates  some  sweeping  changes  in  economic  condi- 
tions whereby  masculine  support  is  failing,  as  it  has  never  be- 
fore done  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  the  burden  of  sup- 
port is  being  shifted  to  the  shoulders  of  women.  Men  them- 
selves are  not  to  blame  for  these  conditions,  changes  in  meth- 
ods of  business,  such  as  the  combinations  of  capital  whereby 
manufacturers  and  dealers  on  a  small  scale  are  forced  out  of 
business;  changes  in  methods  of  manufacturing,  whereby  men 
trained  and  experienced  in  certain  lines  of  work  are  suddenly 
confronted  with  conditions  requiring  adaptation  to  altered 
methods;  the  lowering  of  the  age  limits  for  employment, 
whereby  many  of  our  largest  corporations  discharge  their  old 
employees  and  will  not  engage  new  employees  over  the  age 
of  thirty-five  years,  thus  making  the  employment  of  men  of 
middle  age  and  beyond  very  difficult;  the  increased  cost  of  liv- 
ing  and   especially   the   large   amount   of   cash   required   since 


EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         523 

primitive  methods  of  manufacture  of  clothing  and  food  at  home 
have  become  obsolete; — these  and  other  conditions  are  making 
an  entirely  new  environment  for  the  support  of  families. 
Women  are  stepping  into  the  gap,  often  at  the  cost  of  supreme 
self-sacrifice,  with  a  nobility  that  has  never  been  surpassed  or 
perhaps  equalled  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Whether  the 
condition  be  temporary  or  is  to  be  permanent  none  of  us  at 
present  know;  but  it  is  a  condition  in  which  both  men  and 
women  should  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  in  which  it  is 
inconceivable  that  one  should  say  to  the  other — "  You  shall 
work  at  a  disadvantage,  and  I  shall  reserve  certain  privileges 
to  myself,  simply  because  I  am  a  man." 

Third:  The  present  statute  which  provides  that  men  in  our 
public  day  schools  shall  receive  from  50%  to  100%  more  for 
positions  of  equal  rank  and  grade  is  gross  class  legislation 
favoring  one  set  of  workers  at  the  expense  of  another.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  this  state  government  should  grant  a  fran- 
chise to  a  corporation  which  franchise  should  contain  a  pro- 
vision that  the  men  employed  by  the  corporation  must  receive 
from  50%  to  100%  more  than  women  for  positions  of  equal 
rank.  It  is  inconceivable  that  a  law  could  be  placed  on  our 
statute  books,  providing  for  the  extension  of  this  obnoxious 
principle  to  all  civic  employees.  Imagine  the  people  of  this 
Commonwealth  for  one  instant  tolerating  the  bare  suggestion 
that  all  men  in  city  or  state  employ  should  be  thus  favored. 
Such  a  thing  could  not  be.  If  such  a  law  would  be  wrong  for 
the  whole,  surely  it  is  wrong  for  a  part. 

CHARLES  F.  KINGSLEY. 

From  the  outset  of  the  movement  to  secure  for  the  women 
who  teach  in  the  public  schools  the  same  salary  as  that  re- 
ceived by  men  who  do  teaching  of  the  same  kind  and  charac- 
ter, I  have  believed  that  you  should  succeed. 

I  have  followed  the  varying  stages  of  the  movement  with 
much  interest  and  I  think  you  have  constantly  gained  ground 
in  the  public  mind  and  have  won  over  to  your  side  many  peo- 
ple who,  when  the  question  was  first  mooted,  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  your  efforts. 

I  trust  that  the  public  authorities  having  this  matter  in 
charge  may,  before  long,  do  whatever  is  necessary  to  solve  this 
problem  in  such  manner  as  to  give  equal  pay  for  like  service 
to  all  who  work  in  the  public  schools  regardless  of  sex. 

Sincerely  yours, 

March  30,  1910.  DANIEL  F.  COHALAN. 

Dear  Madam. 

In  reply  to  your  printed  inquiry  addressed  to  me  as  the 
Fusion  candidate  for  Alderman  in  the  Ninth  Assembly  Dis- 
trict (Manhattan),  asking  whether  I  believe  that  all  city  em- 


524        EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

ployees  whose  appointment  is  made  from  an  eligible  list,  should 
be  paid  according  to  the  position  held  without  regard  to  the 
sex  of  the  employee,  I  beg  to  state  that  when  I  buy  any  com- 
modity I  do  not  expect  its  price  to  be  regulated  by  the  fact 
that  the  producer  of  the  commodity  is  a  woman  or  a  man.  I 
buy  the  goods  and  I  pay  the  price.  Labor  is  a  commodity  like 
any  other,  and  if  an  individual  or  a  community  contracts  for 
a  certain  amount  of  human  effort  and  time,  I  see  no  reason 
why  the  sex  of  the  persons  rendering  that  labor  should  be 
made  a  basis  of  discrimination. 

If  I  am  elected  alderman  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  you 

further,   as    I    consider   our   schools   far   more   important   than 

subways,  and  shall  do  what  I  can  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  of 

unutilized  school  sites  and  insufficient  school  accommodations. 

Very  respectfully, 

Oct.  20,  1909.  GERALD  VAN  CASTEEL, 

Counsellor-at-law. 

Dear  Madam: 

I  am  in  receipt  of  a  letter  from  your  Association  requesting 
a  reply  to  the  question: 

"Do  you  believe  that  all  city  employees  whose  appointment- 
is  made  from  an  eligible  list,  should  be  paid  according  to  the 
position  held,  without  regard  to  the  sex  of  the  employee?" 

In  answer  thereto,  I  would  state  that  as  a  general  proposi- 
tion I  believe  that  the  salary  should  attach  to  the  position. 

I  have  had  no  occasion  to  give  special  consideration  to  the 
application  of  the  principle  to  the  positions  of  teachers  in  the 
public  schools,  but  as  I  understand  that  the  qualifications  and 
the  character  of  work  required  are  the  same  for  men  and 
women  alike,  I  should,  under  the  circumstances,  favor  the 
equalization  of  their  salaries. 

Respectfully  yours, 

Oct.  25,  1909.  JOHN  F.  GALVIN. 

Dear  Madam: 

In  placing  myself  on  record  as  being  in  favor  of  your  move- 
ment I  wish  to  state  that  I  do  so  after  having  made  a  most 
careful  examination  of  the  same. 

How  a  distinction  can  be  lawfully  made,  so  that  the  teachers 
of  the  evening  schools  and  the  summer  schools  of  this  City, 
whether  male  or  female,  are  paid  according  to  the  grades  taught 
by  them  respectively;  and  how  the  attendance  officers  of  the 
Department  of  Education  of  this  City  are  paid  according  to 
their  work  regardless  of  sex;  and  yet  the  women  teachers  in 
the  day  schools  of  this  city  are  discriminated  against  in  this 
respect,    I    cannot    understand.    All    of    said    departments    are 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        525 

under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  Department  of  Education 
of  this  city. 

I  may  say,  after  having  spoken  to  many  taxpayers  concern- 
ing this  matter,  I  find  few  who  oppose  your  application,  and 
in  almost  every  instance  my  interview  developed  the  fact  that 
those  few  who  were  opposed  to  your  measure  were  not  suf- 
ficiently familiar  with  it  to  discuss  the  situation  intelligently. 
The  name  of  your  measure  commonly  called  "The  Women 
Teachers  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  is  possibly  misleading,  for  accord- 
ing to  my  understanding  the  women  teachers  are  not  asking 
for  "  equal  pay "  in  so  many  words.  What  they  seek,  as  I 
understand  it,  is  a  graduated  scale  of  salaries  to  be  paid  ac- 
cording to  the  class  taught,  regardless  of  sex;  conceding  that 
the  teachers  of  the  male  classes  are  entitled  to  greater  re- 
muneration for  their  services  than  the  teachers  of  the  female 
classes. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  male  teachers  of  this  city  are  in 
charge  of  the  male  classes  in  our  public  schools  and  in  con- 
sequence thereof  they  would  naturally  continue  to  receive  more 
for  their  services  than  the  female  teachers,  with  the  exception  of 
those  few  female  teachers  who  are  performing  identically  the 
same  labor,  teaching  the  same  grade  in  the  male  department. 
In  that  respect  I  feel  that  they  are  performing  the  same  work 
as  their  brethren,  and  are  entitled  to  the  same  pay. 

In  no  department  other  than  the  Department  of  Education 
is  there  a  discrimination  made  against  women  holding  posi- 
tions nor  does  such  a  condition  exist  in  our  State  and  Na- 
tional offices.  In  fact  as  above  indicated  it  exists  only  in  cer- 
tain branches  of  the  said  Department  of  Education  of  this 
city. 

That  this  is  class  legislation,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and 
where  the  legislature  of  this  State  permits  the  same  to  con- 
tinue, I  feel  that  the  taxpayers  are  being  deprived  of  the  good 
work  which  teachers  are  capable  of  rendering  and  which  is 
being  discouraged  by  this  controversy;  for  it  must  be  con- 
ceded by  students  of  labor  that  where  a  question  is  pending 
undetermined  and  in  controversy,  the  same  work  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  obtained  as  where  satisfaction  exists. 

I  have  expressed  myself  at  length  upon  this  subject  for  the 
reason  that  I  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood.  My  opponent, 
the  Republican  candidate  for  re-election  to  the  Assembly  from 
the  i8th  Assembly  District  of  Brooklyn,  opposed  your  bill  in 
the  last  Assembly,  and  that  caused  me  to  investigate  this  issue 
more  closely  than  I  would  otherwise  have  possibly  done.  I 
find  that  he  fathered  the  Women's  equal  suffrage  bill  and  am 
at  a  loss  to  understand  how  he  can  in  one  breath  favor  wo- 
men's equality  so  far  as  the  right  of  franchise, — the  greatest 


526         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

right  in  this  country,  is  concerned — and  in  the  next  breath 
oppose  women's  rights  in  respect  of  their  earning  capacity, 
when  they  are  performing  identically  the  same  work  as  their 
brother    teachers. 

Very  truly  yours, 

MILTON  G.  BUCKY, 

Counsellor-at-Law. 

Seventeen  hundred  male  teachers  object  to  thirteen  thousand 
female  teachers  receiving  equal  emolument  for  the  same  class 
work.  Why?  It  certainly  could  not  hurt  these  men,  nor  de- 
crease their  pay;  but  animated  by  a  spirit  of  intolerance  and 
narrow-mindedness  they  raise  objection  to  an  act  of  justice, 
threatening  to  use  their  ballots  against  the  legislative  friends  of 
the   women   teachers. 

Every  one  of  these  thirteen  thousand  women  teachers  has 
the  power  to  influence  in  their  just  cause,  say,  an  average  of 
six  votes,  with  father,  brothers,  relatives  and  friends,  or  78,000 
votes  in  Greater  New  York.  This  is  a  low  estimate,  for  all 
broad-minded,  liberal-thinking  men  are  with  the  women  teach- 
ers in  the  fight  for  their  rights;  and  partisan  lines  can  be  for- 
gotten in  a  just  and  noble  cause. 

The  seventeen  hundred  male  teachers  may  appeal  to  blind 
partisan  prejudice,  dividing  between  the  existing  parties,  but  as 
their  influence  is  insignificant,  their  arguments  fallacious,  their 
animus  contemptible,  and  their  labors  indicative  of  the  bigotry 
of  a  darker  age,  they  will  not  have  followers. 

My  New  York  grammar  school  experience,  and  also  that  of 
all  my  friends  with  whom  I  have  discussed  the  subject,  left  me 
with  grateful  recollection  of  the  female  teachers,  and  apprecia- 
tion of  their  painstaking  care  and  deep  interest. 

The  weaknesses,  selfishness,  lack  of  ability  and  frequent  in- 
justice, of  the  male  teachers  I  knew  as  a  boy,  were  apparent 
to  every  scholar,  and  contempt  was  often  expressed  by  such 
soubriquets  as  "  Pop,"  "  Poppy,"  "  Bully,"  etc. 

I   am  most  heartily  in   favor  of  the  Teachers'   Equal   Pay 
Bill. 

P.  E.  DOWE, 
Ex-president  Commercial  Travelers*  National  League. 

That  equal  service  is  entitled  to  equal  reward  is  quite  as 
susceptible  to  proof  as  is  the  statement  that  two  and  two  equal 
four. 

If  men  are  more  capable  teachers  than  women,  then  women 
must  necessarily  suffer  if  the  pay  be  equal.  The  city  will,  or 
should,  employ  the  strongest  teachers  the  salaries  will  procure. 

Is  the  opposition  of  the  male  teacher  to  the  equalization  of 
pay   therefore    dictated   by   chivalrous    sentiments?    While   not 


Hon.  James  A.  Foley, 
Father  of  Assembly   "Equal  Pay   Bill"   of  1909. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         527 

entirely  practical,  it  would  be  at  least  graceful  and  pleasing. 
I  regret  to  say,  however,  that  I  recently  discussed  the  matter 
with  two  male  teachers  and  they  told  me  that  they  objected 
to  an  increase  of  pay  for  the  women  teachers  because  they 
(the  male  teachers)  had  intended  to  ask  for  increased  salaries 
for  themselves. 

This,  then,  is  the  cause  of  their  indigestion! 

Wishing  you  justice  and  success,  synonymous  terms  in  this 
case. 

March  30,  1908.  JOHN  T.  GILROY. 

LETTERS— JUDGES 

I  have  watched  the  efforts  of  your  Association  to  obtain 
favorable  legislation,  and  I  have  been,  and  am,  in  sympathy 
with  this  effort  because  I  can  see  no  reason  why  sex  alone 
should  give  rise  to  inequality  of  compensation.  I  do  not  think 
there  is  any  body  of  public  servants  more  devoted  to  duty  than 
are  the  school  teachers  of  Greater  New  York,  and  I  wish  them 
all  success  in  obtaining  satisfactory  legislative  recognition  of 
their  ability  and  fidelity. 

PETER  A.  HENDRICK, 

January  23,  1908,  Justice,  Supreme  Court. 

I  sympathize  with  your  move. 

FRANK  C  LAUGHLIN, 

Justice,   Supreme   Court. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  sign  and  transmit  to  the  Committees  of 
Senate  and  Assembly  the  postals  enclosed  in  your  letter.  I 
will  directly  communicate  with  the  members  I  know.  I  wish 
you  success  in  your  efforts. 

Please  command  me  whenever  you  think  I  can  be  of  service 
to   you. 

LUKE  D.  STAPLETON, 

April  21,  1909.  Justice,  Supreme  Court. 

I  am  in  thorough  sympathy  with  your  movement  to  secure 
Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work  for  the  school  teachers  of  New 
York. 

SAMUEL  SEABURY, 

December,  1909.  Justice,  Supreme  Court. 

Your  invitatios  to  join  the  demonstration  in  favor  of  equal 
pay  received.  In  my  judgment  your  efforts  to  that  end  should 
be  successful. 

January  26,  1908.  HOWARD  J.  PORKER,  Justice. 


528         EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Wishing  you  success  in  all  your  undertakings  and  especially 
in  this  one. 
January  20,  1908.  PATRICK   KEADY,  Justice. 

Call  on  me  for  anything  that  I  can  do  to  aid  you  in  your 
cause. 
January  13,  1908.  JOHN  F.  HYLAN,  Magistrate. 

CITY,    COUNTY,    STATE,    NATIONAL    OFFICERS    AND 
POLITICAL  LEADERS 

I  am  in  favor  of  the  bill,  and  sincerely  hope  it  will  become 
a  law  at  this  session. 

JOHN,   D.   GUNTHER, 
March  2,  1908.  Alderman,  57th  Dist.,  Brooklyn. 

I  am  most  heartily  in  favor  of  the  Teachers'  Equal  Pay 
bill,  believing  that  it  is  but  an  act  of  justice  to  a  superior  body 
of  public  servants. 

I  can  at  the  same  time  assure  you  of  the  support  of  my  party 
associates  in  the  Assembly.  As  a  member  of  the  Rules  Com- 
mittee I  shall  be  in  favor  of  reporting  it  to  the  House. 

You  are  at  liberty  to  use  this  letter  in  any  manner  you  see 
fit. 

DANIEL  D.  FRISBIE, 

April  22,  1909.  Democratic   Leader,  Assembly. 

On  Monday  night,  April  13,  1908,  the  Kings  County  Inde- 
pendence League  unanimously  indorsed  the  Teachers'  Equal 
Pay  bill.  ALFRED  J.  BOULTON. 

Assuring  you  of  my  hearty  co-operation  in  and  sympathy  for 
your  movement,  and  wishing  your  Association  every  success 
in    its    undertaking. 

January  17,  1908.         (SENATOR)  WILLIAM  SOHMER. 

I  am  glad  the  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  passed  the  Legisla- 
ture, almost  unanimously.  It  speaks  well  for  the  intelligence 
and  sense  of  justice  of  the  respective  members  of  the  Assembly 
and  the  Senate  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Of  course,  the 
Mayor  and  the  Governor  should  approve  the  bill.  I  will  do 
everything  in  my  power  to  bring  this  about,  and  to  that  end 
have  written  very  strong  letters  to  Mayor  McClellan  and  Gov- 
ernor Hughes,  and  I  cannot  see  how  they  can  possibly  refuse 
again  to  sign  the  bill  in  the  face  of  the  overwhelming  public 
sentiment  in  its  favor. 

WM.  SULZER, 

May   3,   1909.  Member,   House   of    Representatives. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         529 

I  am  in  entire  sympathy  with  your  movement,  and  have  al- 
ways strongly  believed  in  the  principles  of  your  association. 

I  never  yet  have  been  able  to  see  how,  under  any  circum- 
stances, it  is  fair  that  when  equally  efficient  work  is  done  by 
women  as  by  men,  in  any  walk  of  life,  they  should  act  receive 
the  same  compensation. 

J.  VAN  VECHTEN  OLCOTT, 

April  2Z,  1909.  Member,  House  of  Representatives. 

I  have  always  been  in  favor  of  the  Bill,  "  Equal  Pay  for 
Teachers,"  and  when  the  bill  is  on  final  passage  I  shall  voice 
the  sentiments  of  every  member  of  my  Club  who  are  to  a  man 
in  favor  of  the  Teachers  Equal  Pay  Bill. 

THOMAS  J.  M'MANUS. 

March  21,  1908. 

I  am  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  equalization  of  teachers' 
salaries  and  the  only  difficulty  in  my  mind  is  the  question  of 
expense — can  the  city  afford  it? 

C.  H.  FULLER, 

February  21,  1907.  Member,  Senate. 

I  was  Mayor  of  Syracuse  from  1895  to  1902,  and  during  that 
period  our  Charter  was  changed  three  times,  and  the  changes 
radically  affected  the  school   system  of  Syracuse. 

I  always  found  Senator  White,  of  Syracuse,  the  Chairman 
of  the  Senate  Cities  Committee,  to  be  in  favor  of  doing  justice 
to    the   women   teachers. 

I  am  not  familiar  with  present  demands  of  the  teachers,  and 
if  you  will  inform  me  when  we  meet  next,  I  should  only  be  too 
glad  to  do  what  little  lies  in  my  power  to  help  you  and  your 
Organization. 

January  31,  1908.  JAMES  K.  M'GUIRE. 

I  am  in  hearty  accord  with  you  in  your  desire  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  women  teachers  by  securing  for  them 
"  equal  pay  for  equal  work."  Justice,  not  charity,  should  be 
the  motto.  I  sincerely  hope  your  bill  becomes  a  law  at  this 
session  of  the  Legislature. 

M.  A.  FITZGERALD, 

January   24,    1908.  Deputy    Secretary   of    State. 

The  teachers  have  a  good  cause — one  that  strongly  appeals 
to  all  classes  of  people — and  I  hope  it  will  win.  You  have  my 
very  best  wishes  for  success. 

JOHN  S.  WHALEN, 

January  27,  1908.  Secretary  of  State. 


530         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

I  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly  my  sympathy  with  you  and 
all  connected  with  you  in  the  movement  that  you  have  under- 
taken. It  is  through  the  kindness,  patience  and  intelligence 
of  women  like  you  and  those  associated  with  you  that  the 
first  teachings  of  men  like  myself  and  all  those  in  public  life 
were  attained.  What  we  were  taught  by  you  we  have  never 
forgotten,  and  that  the  pay  of  the  women  teachers  should  not 
be  the  same  as  that  of  the  men  is  something  which  I  cannot 
understand.  It  is  an  injustice,  and  any  little  influence  which 
I  may  possess  you  are  at  liberty  to  call  on  if  you  think  that  in 
any  manner  I  can  further  the  cause  of  justice — for  such  I  con- 
sider your  fight. 

With  very  best  wishes  for  your  ultimate  success,  I  remain 
as  always,  "  A  Friend  of  the  Women  Teachers." 

GEORGE  F.  SCANNELL, 

February   4,    1908.  Superintendent    of    Highways. 

Your  movement,  to  put  the  teaching  force  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  City  of  New  York  (male  teachers  and  women 
teachers)  on  an  equal  footing,  has  my  hearty  support  and  what- 
ever aid  I  may  be  able  to  render  you  I  will  gladly  give. 

With  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your  undertaking. 

JULIUS  HAUSER, 

January   17,   19908.  State   Treasurer. 

It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  write  to  Governor  Hughes 
in  behalf  of  the  White  Bill.  I  hope  the  Governor  will  sign 
the  bill. 

LAWRENCE  T.  LEE, 

May  22,  1907.  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor. 

I  am  unalterably  in  favor  of  the  principle  that  where  men 
and  women  are  appointed  to  positions  in  the  same  grade  or 
rank  they  should  receive  the  same  pay.  The  character  of  the 
work,  and  not  the  sex  of  the  worker,  should  fix  the  compensa- 
tion. If,  as  is  claimed,  there  is  not  money  enough  to  pay  the 
teaching  force  required,  which  I  for  one  do  not  believe,  then 
the  women  teachers  should  not  be  the  only  sufferers.  The 
argument  that  there  are  greater  demands  upon  men  than  upon 
women  is  entirely  irrelevant.  If  it  were  valid,  it  would  re- 
quire that  the  bachelor  should  receive  less  pay  than  the  man 
with  ten  children,  and  the  thrifty  man  much  less  pay  than  the 
spendthrift.  I  am  in  favor  of  legislation  providing  for  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  regardless  of  sex,  on  a  ground  entirely 
outside  of  its  being  required  by  justice — on  the  ground  that  it 
is  involved  in  the  very  fundamental  conception  of  democracy, 
which  requires  equality  of  opportunity  and  equality  of  the  re- 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         531 

wards  of  genuine  labor  based  upon  the  character  of  the  work 
performed. 

J.   D.    BELL. 
March  6,  1908.  Corporation  Counsel  for  Brooklyn. 


Wish  you  success. 


MICHAEL   STAPLETON, 
Alderman,   2d    Dist,   Manhattan. 


Hon.  William  E.  Morris  bids  me  to  assure  you  of  his  sym- 
pathy with  the  movement. 

D.  S.  M'CORMICK, 
Cor.   Sec.   Tammany   Hall,   35th   Assembly   Dist. 

I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  you  and  your  fellow  teachers 
in  your  just  appeal.  If  I  can  facilitate  or  aid  in  your  just  en- 
deavor in  any  way  possible,  you  have  only  to  let  me  know 
to   secure   my  earnest  help. 

JAMES  S.  CLARKSON, 

January  17,  1908.  United  States  Custom  Service. 

Wishing  you  all  success. 

HERMAN  RINGE, 
January  18,  1908.  Secretary,  Borough  of  Queens. 

I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  good  cause.  I  am  in 
favor  of  your  bill  and  will  assist  in  its  passage  in  any  way 
possible. 

WILLIAM  DUANE, 

February  29,  1908.  Deputy  Chief. 

I  am  in  hearty  accord  with  your  cause  and  wish  it  every 
success. 

JOHN  HETHERINGTON, 

Assistant   District   Attorney. 

My  sympathies  are  positively  with  you  in  your  noble  fight  for 
justice  and  fair  play.  I  taught  school  for  seven  years  in  a  district 
and  under  a  system  where  equal  pay  was  obtained.  The  results 
were  admirable  and  the  system  attained  a  high  degree  of  perfec- 
tion. 

M.  F.  CONRY, 
Congressman,   New   York. 

I  consider  it  a  duty  as  well  as  a  pleasure  to  attend  your 
Mass    Meeting. 

JOHN  D.  M'EWEN, 
Republican    Leader,    Queens. 


532         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

I  am.  uncompromisingly  for  equal   pay  for  equal  work. 

CHARLES  FREDERICK  ADAMS. 

You  may  use  my  name  as  you  see  fit,  if  it  will  help  your 
cause  for  Justice. 

JOSEPH  H.  deBRAGGA. 

I  am  firmly  convinced  of  the  justice  of  your  cause,  and  will 
support  it  when   the  opportunity  to   do   so   presents   itself, 

P.  J.  M'GRATH, 

Member    of    Assembly. 

I  hope  that  you  will  meet  with  every  success  in  your  work. 
There  are  no  employees  of  the  city  who  render  greater  service 
to  the  community  than  do  the  school  teachers. 

R.  WALDO, 

March  29,  1910.  Commissioner,  Fire  Department. 

I  am  in  thorough  sympathy  with  the  movement  which  has 
for  its  object  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  without  regard  as  to 
whether  it  is  a  man  or  a  woman  who  does  the  work.  This, 
it  seems  to  me,  should  apply  not  only  to  teaching,  but  to  any 
other  work  in  the  public  service  or  in  private  business. 

Those  who  employ  men  and  "women  to  work  either  with 
their  hands  or  their  brains  are  buying  a  commodity,  and  it 
is  not  a  square  deal  to  pay  less  to  a  woman  for  that  commodity 
than  to  a  man,  just  because  circumstances  and  traditions  make 
it  possible  to  discriminate  in  favor  of  the  man.  It  is  neither 
common  sense  nor  common  justice,  nor  in  accordance  with  eco- 
nomic rules.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  rank  injustice  to  the  one  who 
receives  the  lesser  compensation.  It  is  discrimination  against  the 
so-called  weaker  sex  for  which  there  is  no  just  or  legitimate 
excuse. 

In  recent  years  many  women  have  taken  up  important 
branches  of  work  which  it  had  previously  been  thought  could 
only  be  performed  by  men,  and,  in  countless  instances,  they 
are  just  as  successful  as  men.  This,  of  course,  has  always  been 
largely  true  of  teachers.  All  of  these  women  and  all  men  who 
are  moved  by  a  sense  of  justice,  rather  than  by  selfish  motives, 
should  congratulate  you  and  your  associates  on  what  you  have 
done  to  bring  about  a  change  for  the  better  for  your  sex. 

February,   1910.  WILLIAM   LEARY. 

BRYAN  ENDORSES  WOMEN  TEACHERS'  "EQUAL 
PAY"  MOVEMENT 

Col.  William  Jennings  Bryan  has  come  forth  rather  un- 
expectedly as  an  ally  of  the  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work  "  move- 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        533 

ment,  which  is  being  propelled  to  all  parts  of  this  country  by 
thousands  of  women  teachers.  This  fact  became  known  yester- 
day when  Col.  Bryan  was  approached  by  a  representative  of 
the  13,000  women  teachers  of  this  city  who  are  fighting  to  have 
the  legislature  equalize  the  salary  standards  of  the  men  and 
the  women  teachers  employed  in  the  public  schools  here. 

Mr.  Bryan  said  he  was  not  familiar  with  the  local  school 
situation,  but  he  authorized  this  statement  to  be  made: 

"  I  believe  in  the  general  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal 
work,  and  I  believe  that  the  position  should  carry  the  salary, 
irrespective  of  the  sex  of  the  incumbent." 

Mr.  Bryan  was  then  asked  this  question: 

"  Do  you  think  that  if  the  legislature  was  responsible  for  the 
present  unjust  discrepancies  in  the  salaries  of  women  teachers 
and  men  teachers,  it  should  be  appealed  to  to  rectify  these 
discrepancies?" 

"  As  I  said,"  replied  Mr.  Bryan,  "  I  am  not  familiar  with  the 
local  situation,  but  I  believe  that  when  any  body,  legislative 
or  otherwise,  is  responsible  for  conditions  which  need  rectify- 
ing, that  body  should  be  appealed  to  for  relief. — New  York  Even- 
ing Telegram,  1907. 


I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  the  Association's  efforts  for  more 
remuneratory  salaries  for  the  women  teachers,  thereby  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  and  raising  to  a  higher  standard  the 
teachers  of  our  Public  Schools. 

Please  allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  the  disinterested 
work  you  are  doing  so  well  and  which  is  bound  to  meet  with 
the  success  it   so  well  deserves. 

With  best  wishes. 

February  5,  1908.  JOHN  J.  MURPHY. 


The  earnest  conscientious  effort  of  yourself  and  members 
of  your  association  to  establish  the  principle  of  equal  pay  for 
equal  work  is  bound  to  be  successful,  even  though  it  has  re- 
ceived a  temporary  set-back. 

With  best  wishes. 

April  7.  1910.  JAMES  F.  HOEY. 


WOMEN'S  CL-UBS 

I  am  with  you  and  your  colleagues  heart  and  soul,  and  you 
have  my  best  wishes  for  your  ultimate  success, 

(MRS.  E.  J.)  JEANIE  D.  GRANT, 
March   5,   1908.  President,   Chiropean. 


534         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

Assure  you  of  my  hearty  sympathy  with  the  work  you  are 
doing. 

(MRS.  N.  E.)  LOUISE  D.  HULBERT. 
February  9,  1908.  First  Vice-President,  National  Society 

of  the  Empire  State. 

You  have  my  best  wishes  for  your  success  and  any  time  that 
I  can  be  of  any  service,  I  hope  you  will  call  upon  me. 

HELEN    ARTHUR, 
March   2,   1908.  Lawyer. 

I'm  with  you,  of  course,  absolutely.  You  are  bound  to  win 
out  in  time,  because  you  are  right.  Everything  in  the  way  of 
logical  argument  is  on  your  side,  to  say  nothing  of  just  plain 
every  day  common  justice. 

January,  1908.  KATHERINE  D.  BURNETTE,  M.  D. 

Wishing  you  success. 

ELLA  L.  BLAIR, 
December,  1909.  President,  State  Federation  of  Women's 

Clubs. 

Equal  pay  for  equal  work  is  a  grand  rallying  cry,  and  with 
your  great  organization  so  splendidly  efficient  you  surely  must 
succeed. 

(MRS.  T.  E.)   ELLEN  A.  LONERGAN. 

Second  Vice-President,  Chicago  Women's 
January  26,  1908.  Club  of  N.  Y.  City. 

Will  do  all  in  my  power  to  help  you. 

(MRS.  STEPHEN  D.)  AGNES  L.  STEPHENS, 
January,  1908.      Director,  State  Federation  Woman's  Clubs. 

Best   wishes    for   success. 

January,  1908.  MRS.  S.  DICKINSON  LEWIS. 

I  most  heartily  endorse  the  work  in  which  you  and  your  as- 
sociates are  so  nobly  and  faithfully  engaged.  I  trust  you  will 
gain  your  object  this  winter.  Rights  are  not  adjusted  in  a  day, 
particularly  the  rights  for  Woman,  but  success  will  come 
eventually  and  women  will  have  equal  pay  with  men,  not  only 
as  teachers,  but  in  every  work  they  undertake. 

(MRS.  THOMAS  H.)   LUCY  E.  WHITNEY. 

January   18,   1908. 

I  am  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  purpose  of  this  meeting 
and  assure  you  of  my  co-operation  and  all  the  influence  I  may 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         535 

have.     Hoping   the   Women   Teachers   may  be   successful   this 
time. 

MARY  J.  MACNUTT, 
January    20,    1908.  President,    Minerva. 

I  am  now,  as  I  have  always  been,  a  strong  advocate  of  equal 
pay  for  equal  work.  Any  movement  toward  this  end  among 
teachers  has  my  warm  sympathy  and  support. 

MRS.  HARLOW  R.  BROWN, 
Pres.    School   Settlement   Association, 
Sec,   Local   School   Board,  Dist.  31. 

This  movement  for  "equal  pay"  is  very  significant.  It  is 
based  upon  a  just  foundation,  and  the  result  should  prove 
rightful  and  normal. 

Heartily  wishing  you  a  successful   Bill  passage. 
MARY  MOORE  ORR, 

January  31,  1908.  Sec.  Local  School  Board,  Dist.  27. 

Good  wishes  to  you. 

January,  1908.  VIRGINIA  C.  GILDERSLEEVE. 

I  am  in  favor  of  and  in  entire  sympathy  with  your  move- 
ment. I  have  not  heard  that  Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward,  Edith 
Wharton,  and  other  women  writers  are  offered  lower  royalties 
because   of   their   sex. 

As  to  men  with  family  responsibilities  requiring  larger 
salaries  than  women,  I  would  say  there  are  too  many  women 
nobly  shouldering  heavy  responsibilities  for  this  to  be  just 
ground   for   discriminating   against   them. 

I  am  ignorant  as  to  whether  bachelors  receive  less  salary 
than  benedicts. 

"  Equal  pay  for  equal  work "  is  the  only  reasonable  con- 
clusion. 

February  7,  1908.  MARGARET  W.  HUGH  AN. 

I  am  always  ready  to  do  whatever  I  can  to  help  you  in  the 
splendid  work. 

MARY  G.  HAY, 
December,  1909.  Vice-President,  General  Federation 

of  Women's  Clubs. 

It  is  a  principle  of  which  I  most  thoroughly  approve. 
December,   1909.  JESSIE   ASHLEY. 

The  Daughters  of  the  Empire  State  are  more  than  willing  to 


536         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

endorse  the  "  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  and  If  there  is  anything  further 
we  can  do,  command  us. 

(MRS.    GERARD)    MARY    W.    BANCKER. 
January,    1908.  President. 


The  Chiropean  endorses  the  "  Equal  Pay  Bill  "  supported  by 
the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  and  asks 
the  Legislature  to  pass  and  the  Mayor  and  the  Governor  to 
approve   the   same. 

JULIA  F.  RING,  Secretary. 

(Largest  women's  club  in  Brooklyn.) 

The  Little  Mbthers'  Aid  Association  and  its  Auxiliaries,  at 
its  regular  meeting  held  March  5th,  heartily  endorsed  the  res- 
olution for  the  Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill — and  sent  letters 
to  that  effect  to  the  Governor,  their  Senator,  and  Assemblyman 
Conklin. 
With  every  wish  for  your  ultimate  success. 

EMILIE  VAN  BEIL,  Secretary. 
MRS.  CLARENCE  BURNS,  Presideat. 
March  7,  1908. 

Whereas,  The  Women's  Republican  Association  of  the  State 
of  New  York  believe  in  the  principle  of  equal  pay  for  equal 
work,  and  whereas  requirements  for  both  preparation  and  work 
are  the  same  for  women  as  for  men  school  teachers  in  the 
City  of  New  Yok,  while  the  pay  is  far  in  excess  for  the  men 
teachers  and  whereas  discrimination  because  of  sex  is  unfair 
and  unwarranted, 

Resolved,  That  we  endorse  the  amendment  to  the  Davis  Law 
known  as  "The  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  and  pray  that  our 
request  be  granted. 

MRS.  JAMES  G.  WENTZ,  President. 
MISS   HELEN   VARICK   BOSWELL, 

First  Vice-President. 
MRS.  CLARENCE  BURNS.  Chr.,  Ex. 
MRS.   EDWARD    P.   SWAN,   Secretary. 
March  10,  1908. 

It  is  a  thing  my  heart  and  soul  is  in.  Wishing  you  every 
success. 

MRS.  R.  A.  BENEDICT. 


I  am  most  heartily  in  favor  of  your  aims. 

MRS.  H.  S.  STOWE. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         537 

Our  Society  is  in  sympathy  with  your  effort  to  secure  Equal 
Pay  for   Equal   Work. 

JANETTE   L.   BOYNTON. 

I  am  with  the  teachers  every  inch! 

MARTHA  WENTWORTH  SUFFREN. 

Wishing  your  cause  the  greatest  success. 

LUCY  CRAPO  WINTER. 

I  have  full  sympathy  with  the  proposition  of  Equal  Pay  for 
Equal  Work. 

IDA  M.  TARBELL. 

ENDORSEMENTS  BY. 

Society  for  Political  Study;  Phalo  Club;  Optima  Club;  Equal- 
ity League  of  Self-Supporting  Women;  Philemon  Literary 
Club  of  Tottenville,  of  the  City  of  New  York;  The  Woman's 
League  of  New  York  State  of  the  City  of  New  York;  Profes- 
sional Women's  League;  College  Women's  Club;  Sorosis;  Chi- 
cago Women's  Club  of  New  York  City;  Woman's  League,  of 
New  York  State;  West  End  Woman's  Republican  Associa- 
tion; The  Woman's  Press  Club,  New  York  City;  Brooklyn 
Woman  Suffrage  Association;  State  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  New  York;  New  York  City  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs;  Women's  Democratic  Club;  National  Daughters  Empire 
State;  Washington  Heights  Chapter,  D'aughters  of  American 
Revolution;  Equality  League  of  Self-Supporting  Women. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Extending  to  the  Association  my  best  wishes. 

HENRY  THOMPSON. 
April  4,  1910.  Commissioner  of  Water  Supply,  Gas 

and  Electricity. 

There  is  no  organization — and  no  woman — to  whom  we  all  give 
greater  respect  and  good  will,  than  your  Association  and  Miss 
Strachan. 

HELEN  VARICK  BOSWELL, 
April  5,  1910.  President,  The  Women's  Forum. 

I  desire  at  this  time  to  say  to  you  that  your  cause  has,  I  believe, 
the  support  of  every  sane  and  honest  taxpayer,  and  like  all  causes 
that  are  right  it  will  win  in  the  near  future. 

Yours  very  truly,  with  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your  cause, 

CLEMENT  J.  DRISCOLL, 
April  9,  1910.  Political  Editor,  N.  Y.  Journal. 


538         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

With  all  good  wishes  and  a  "  God  bless  you  "  in  your  work  for 
womanhood. 

March  30,  ipro.  CHARLOTTE  ERRANI. 

In  accepting  we  desire  to  express  the  hope  .  .  .  that  every 
object  of  the  Interborough  may  be  fulfilled  in  the  near  future. 

EDWARD  D.  FARRELL. 
April  2,  1910.  Ex-District  Superintendent  of  Schools. 

I'll  be  at  the  Dinner.  It  will  give  me  an  added  opportunity  of 
showing  as  far  as  my  official  position  will  allow  that  I'm  an  ardent 
advocate  of  equal  pay  for  our  women  teachers.  With  all  good 
wishes,  and  again  regretting  that  I  can't  do  as  much  for  you  in 
this  matter  as  I  could  wish,  I  am 

MATTHEW!  C.  GLEESON,  Chaplain.  U.  N.  S. 

Mrs.  Markham  (herself  an  old  teacher)  and  I  will  be  happy  to 
attend  the  Dinner  on  the  sixteenth  of  April.  You  already  know 
that  we  are  both  in  sympathy  with  the  labors  of  teachers  and  their 
aspirations. 

March  25,  1910.  EDWIN  MARKHAM. 

You  have  made  a  brave  fight  and  I  hope  you  will  not  grow  dis- 
couraged with  this  defeat  (the  vote  in  Board  of  Education.)  You 
are  a  strong  body  of  women  and  must  stand  together. 

MARY  E.  TRAUTMAN. 
March  21,  1910.  Health  Protective  Association. 

I  hope  that  any  time  our  club,  the  National  California,  or  I  can 
be  of  any  use  to  you  or  your  great  Association  you  will  command 
us.     I  personally  am  at  your  service  for  all  things. 

April  3,  1910.  ENO.  W.  VIVIAN  (Mrs.  Thomas  J.) 

Trust  you  will  meet  with  the  success  that  you  so  well  deserve. 

HENRY  P.  MOLLOY, 
April  14,  1910.  County  Clerk. 

I  am  called  to  Philadelphia  and  it  is  imperative,  or  believe  me, 
I  would  be  with  your  fine  body  of  women.  I  had  hoped  to  hear 
such  speeches  as  would  put  to  shame  the  action  of  the  Board  of 
Education  not  long  since,  and  when  members  of  that  board  were 
of  our  own  sex.  Be  firm,  and  remember  that  Right  always  wins. 
It  may  take  some  time,  but  it  will  win. 

ALICE  FISCHER  HARCOURT. 

In  sympathy  I  am  fully. 

ARTHUR  DAY. 
April  14,  1910.  Vice-Pres.  Savoy  Trust  Co. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         539 

I  hope  that  your  efforts  to  secure  equal  pay  may  be  crowned 
with  success. 

DANIEL  HARRIS, 
April  IS,  191a  President,  Workingmen's  Federation 

of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Nor  need  I  add  since  you  know  my  record  in  regard  to  all  the 
matters  in  which  you  have  been  interested,  how  much  of  success 
I  wish  you  in  all  your  undertakings. 

JOHN  R  AHEARN. 
April  6,  19 10.  Father  of  the  "  Ahearn  Bill." 

Nothing  would  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  meet  face  to  face 
the  brave  women  who  are  fighting  the  battle  of  equal  pay  for  equal 
work. 

April  6,  1910.  RACHEL  FOSTER  AVERY. 

Wishing  you  and  your  co-workers  every  success. 

FRANCIS  P.  BENT, 
March  31,  1910.  Vice-Chairman,  Board  of  Aldermen. 

Please  accept  my  cordial  good  wishes  for  the  success  of  your 
cause,  and  believe  me. 

April  2,  1910.        GEORGE  W.  BRUSH,  M.  D.,  Ex- Senator. 

Assure  you  that  I  will  gladly  help  you  to  attain  for  women  teach- 
ers that  which  you  desire,  i.e., — equal  pay — in  any  way  I  can. 
April  12,  1910.  JOHN  H.  CAMPBELL. 

I  wish  you  all  kinds  of  good  luck  and  if  I  can  do  you  any  good 
at  any  time  please  call  on  me. 

D.  T.  CORNELL. 
April  4,  1910.  Real  Estate  and  Auctioneer. 

Feel    very   confident  that   your   cause    will    ultimately   triumph. 

Let  me  assure  you  of  my  best  wishes  for  the  accomplishment  of 
all  your  aims. 

April  13,  1910.  ALFRED  B.  HALL. 

I  will  congratulate  you  on  the  fact,  though  you  may  not  realize 
it,  that  your  fight  for  equal  pay  is  almost  won.  Let  a  few  more 
cities  do  what  Milwaukee  did  on  April  sth,  and  you  will  get  any- 
thing you  want. 

April  12,  1910.  B.  C.  HAMMOND. 

Kindly  fill  my  place  with  someone  who  needs  converting. 
March  30,  1910.  ALGERNON  S.  HIGGINS. 


540        'EQUAL  'PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

I  trust  that  the  long  battle  for  justice  may  never  be  abandoned 
by  the  Association  until  full  justice  is  established. 

FLORENCE  KELLEY. 
'March  30,  1910.  Consumers'  League. 

Wishing  you  every  success,  and  that  the  occasion  will  be  an  en- 
joyable as  well  as  a  profitable  one. 

April  4,  1910.  DANIEL  A.  McCORMICK. 

Otherwise  I  would  be  most  happy  to  be  present,  to  testify  by 
my  presence,  to  the  high  regard  in  which  I  hold  the  Association 
and  its  aims. 

MRS.  DONALD  McLEAN, 
April  4,  1910.      President,  Daughters  of  American  Revolution. 

I  trust  you  will  have  a  very  pleasant  social  gathering  and  hope 
much  good  may  result. 

March  24,  1910.  MONS.  P.  F.  O'HARE. 

Wishing  you  and  the  members  of  the  Association  success. 

Dr.  ANTONIO  PISANI, 
March  19,  1910.  Commissioner,  Board  of  Education. 

I  wish  your  Association  every  success. 

DANIEL  J.  RIORDAN, 
April  5,  1910.  U.  S.  Representative. 

Wishing  you  success  in  your  laudable  efforts,  I  have  the  honor 
to  remain, 

THOMAS  F.  SMITH. 
March  30,  1910.  Secy.,  Tammany  Hall. 

With  kind  regards,  and  best  wishes  for  the  Women  Teachers' 
Association, 

April  4,  1910.  SAM  A.  SCRIBNER. 

Of  course,  you  know  I  am  deeply  interested  in  your  work. 

J.  E.  SULLIVAN. 
April  II,  1910.  Commissioner,  Board  of  Education. 

Wishing  you  success  in  your  work. 

REV.  CHAS.  A.  CASSIDY, 
St.  Peter's  Rectory,  New  Brighton. 

My  best  wishes  will  be  with  them,  albeit  I  myself  must  that  day 
be  in  Washington. 

ALFRED  HENRY  LEWIS,  457  W.  14th  St. 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         541 

Assuring  the  Association  of  my  warmest  sympathy. 

CHAS.  H.  HYDE,  City  Chamberlain. 

MISCELLANEOUS 
C.  A.  BECKER,  M.  D.  JOHN  B.  BYRNE,  M.  D. 

FRANK  LeC.  DOWE,  M.  D.  GEORGE  C  OWENS,  M.  D. 

WILLIAM  H.  CARY,  M.  D. 

I  am  very  glad  to  lend  my  individual  support  to  your  cause. 

J.  RICHARD  KEVIN,  M.  D. 

I  am  in  thorough  sympathy.  Woman  suffers  injustice  in  many 
ways  under  our  industrial  system  and  semi-barbarous  civilization, 
but  denying  her  equal  pay  for  equal  service  with  men  is  the  rankest 
and  most  apparent  injustice  of  all. 

DAVID  ALLYN  GORTON,  M.  D. 

The  professions  of  Law  and  Medicine  do  not  discriminate  against 
women  in  the  remuneration  for  equal  service,  and  I  see  no  reason 
why  women  teachers  should  not  receive  the  same  salary  as  men  for 
the  same  work. 

Feb.  6,  1908.  WM.  L.  LOVE,  M.  D. 

I  hope  you  will  succeed  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  will,  when 
those  that  are  now  blind  see  the  "true  light." 

EDWARD  H.  GREEN,  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard. 

Your  cause  should  receive  the  hearty  co-operation  of  all  those 
who  believe  in  the  supremacy  of  our  country  and  wish  to  maintain 
it.  "  Equal  pay "  for  our  school  teachers  is  just  as  much  a  right 
that  should  be  maintained  to-day,  as  was  "  Equal  Rights  "  when  our 
Republic  was  founded. 

Feb.  26,  1908  MAURICE  KAHN. 

LETTER— FOURTH  ANNUAL  BANQUET— APRIL  16,  1910 

I  had  expected  to  be  present  and,  with  the  time  permitted  me, 
to  endeavor  once  again  to  impress  upon  the  membership  of  your 
great  Association  the  undeniable  justice  of  its  cause  and  to  urge  a 
confident  reliance,  that,  in  the  near  future,  governmental  condi- 
tions, already  foreshadowed  and  easily  discerned,  guarantee  the 
recognition  of  the  sound  principle  of  political  economy,  that  for 
identical  work,  simple  justice  requires  there  shall  be  identical  pay, 
without  regard  to  the  particular  sex  of  the  individual  by  whom  such 
work  is  performed. 

I  know  how  utterly  disheartening  it  is  to  have  one's  position 
misrepresented  in  any  way  in  which  your  opponents  have  dealt 
with  this  question.    I  know  how  indignant  your  membership  must 


542        EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

be  that,  in  urging  a  just  cause,  they  find  themselves  antagonized  only 
by  the  forces  of  selfishness  and  expediency.  And  yet,  I  would  have 
the  women  teachers  remember  that  they  are  meeting  with  only 
the  experience  which  precedes  the  triumph  of  every  endeavor  to 
impress  simple  justice  upon  the  laws  of  the  Nation  and  State. 

When  the  day  seems  darkest,  when  the  outlook  is  apparently  least 
promising,  when,  after  repeated  failure,  despair  threatens  dominion, 
then,  it  is  that  loyalty  and  energy,  united  in  determined  effort,  gain 
their  triumph. 

With  every  good  wish  for  the  membership  of  your  Association, 
I  am  with  special  grateful  acknowledgments  to  yourself, 
Very  truly  yours, 
April  14,  1910.  THOS.  F.  GRADY. 


LETTER  SENT  BY  MAJOR  EDWARD  R.  GILMAN,  ONE  OF 

THE  SPEAKERS  LISTED  FOR  THE  FOURTH 
ANNUAL  BANQUET,  WHO  WiAS  UNABLE  TO  ATTEND 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  marvelous  progress — the  greatest  age 
in  the  history  of  the  world — the  age  of  the  telephone,  the  telegraph, 
the  wireless,  the  electric  motor,  the  subway,  and  even  the  aeroplane; 
but  wonderful  as  are  all  these  great  inventions,  the  greatest  dis- 
covery of  the  century  has  not  yet  occurred;  but  it  is  sure  to  come. 
The  new  discovery  is  the  light  that  will  come  and  give  women 
justice.  The  century  will  not  be  complete  in  all  its  great  achieve- 
ments until  it  has  undone  the  injustice  that  has  been  done  to  women 
since  the  world  began,  until  it  has  put  her  on  an  equality  with 
man.  We  shall  be  not  far  above  barbarians  until  this  has  been 
accomplished.  We  have  made  some  little  progress  in  the  State 
of  New  York.  Women  can  at  least  own  property  and  we  are 
beginning  to  allow  them  to  hold  certain  executive  positions.  They 
are  demonstrating  their  entire  fitness  for  these  positions.  Why  we 
should  divide  our  teachers  into  two  classes  simply  because  one 
wears  skirts  and  the  other  pants,  I  cannot  understand.  The 
teachers  should  be  paid  according  to  the  services  they  render,  ir- 
respective of  sex,  creed,  or  age.  Age,  creed,  or  the  color  of  one's 
hair  should  not  enter  into  the  question  of  compensation,  nor  should 
the  question  of  sex.  The  only  things  to  be  considered  are  ability 
and  fitness. 

There  is  no  argument  at  all  in  the  matter  from  my  standpoint, 
but  I  would  go  a  great  deal  further  than  merely  giving  "  Equal 
Pay "  to  women.  I  should  make  women  the  only  teachers  of  our 
boys  and  girls.  They  are  better  fitted  for  this  work  than  men  are. 
Men  are  all  right  as  teachers  after  the  children  have  reached  a 
certain  age,  but  women  are  the  only  proper  teachers  for  the  young 
and  also  for  the  girls.  The  male  in  the  animal  race  is  generally  a 
polygamous  brute,   and  while   in  the  human   race  he   is  naturally 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK        543 

faithful  to  his  mate  and  willing  and  anxious  to  provide  for  his  off- 
spring, yet  he  is  not  inclined  to  assume  the  burdens  of  its  daily 
teaching.  The  mother  chicken  will  take  care  of  her  brood  even  to 
the  point  of  losing  her  life,  but  the  rooster  knows  not  his  own. 
The  tom  cat  even  kills  its  young.  All  through  animal  life  the  male 
cares  little  for  its  offspring,  while  the  mother  provides  for  it,  brings 
it  up,  and  teaches  it  how  to  sustain  itself.  It  is  a  law  of  nature, 
and  in  the  human  race  it  is  even  more  pronounced.  Man  is  always 
willing  to  help  provide  for  his  family, — often  to  work  like  a  dog  to 
do  it.  He  is  most  generous  and  noble  in  this  respect,  but  he  does 
not  know  how  to  bring  up  his  children  Nature  did  not  intend  him 
to  do  so.  He  is  born  without  that  instinct  and  he  cannot  acquire 
it  Woman  is  born  with  ability  to  educate  and  bring  up  children. 
It  is  inborn  in  her  heart  and  soul.  She  is  their  natural  educator. 
There  is  a  gentleness  and  sympathy  about  a  woman  that  appeals 
to  every  child,  and  is  almost  always  lacking  in  man.  I  know  I  felt 
it  when  I  was  a  boy  in  school.  I  liked  my  men  teachers,  but  I  had 
no  sympathy  with  them.  I  was  devoted  to  my  women  teachers. 
Their  real  genuine  interest  in  me  was  like  that  of  my  own  mother. 
You  can  lead  a  horse  to  water,  but  you  cannot  make  him  drink. 
You  can  drive  a  child  to  school,  but  you  cannot  make  him  work 
unless  he  is  interested  in  his  work.  Women  can  secure  this  interest 
better  than  men. 

I  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  reorganize  the  whole  plan  for 
teachers.  I  would  have  women  exclusively  for  the  girls  and  boys 
until  they  had  reached  an  age  where  perhaps  a  man  teacher  could 
train  them  as  well  or  better  than  a  woman.  The  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Education  should  be  women.  I  would 
have  no  woman  on  that  Board  of  Education  who  did  not  believe 
that  women  were  equal  to  men.  I  would  not  consider  sex  in  the 
matter  of  the  pay  of  school  teachers.  I  would  pay  liberal  salaries 
to  all  teachers,  as  the  education  of  our  children  is  the  most  im- 
portant thing  to  our  city,  and  the  best  talent  is  none  too  good. 

Some  people  believe  that  the  greatest  aid  to  humanity  is  the 
school  of  religion,  since  it  aims  to  teach  us  how  to  save  our  souls 
in  eternity;  others  think  that  the  school  of  medicine  and  surgery 
is  the  greatest  because  it  relieves  suffering  and  prolongs  and  often 
saves  lives;  but  I  say  the  greatest  blessing  to  humanity  is  the 
school  teacher,  because  when  education  is  universal,  we  will  know 
how  to  live  correctly  in  this  world  and  how  to  prepare  ourselves  for 
the  world  beyond.  Education  is  the  foundation  of  the  future  suc- 
cess of  our  city,  state,  and  nation,  and  in  the  great  City  of  New 
York  with  its  conglomerate  population  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
sprinkled  with  socialistic  and  anarchistic  minds,  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  the  education  of  the  new  generation  should  be  of 
the  very  best  and  that  a  spirit  of  public  pride  and  patriotism  should 
be  instilled  into  the  children  of  to-day — the  citizens  of  to-morrow. 

The  work  of  the  educator  is  the  most  important  work  in  the 


544         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

world.  It  is  the  noblest  calling,  yet  the  poorest  paid.  It  is  of 
fundamental  importance  to  the  future  welfare  of  our  country.  Our 
city  does  not  hesitate  to  spend  large  sums  freely  for  fire  and  police 
protection  and  for  the  mere  amusement  of  the  public.  Parks,  pub- 
lic libraries,  bath  houses,  recreation  piers,  and  bands  of  music 
are  all  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  city  to  amuse  or  benefit 
the  public,  but  we  growl  and  kick  as  if  the  taxpayers  were  being 
sandbagged  and  robbed  if  we  give  a  teacher  half  a  living  salary. 

Now  you  have  my  sentiments.  If  I  were  so  fortunate  as  to  be 
able  to  go  to  your  dinner,  I  would  not  say  much  other  than  along 
these  lines,  except  perhaps  to  say  this — that  the  women  on  the 
Board  of  Education  who  voted  against  "  Equal  Pay "  should  be 
called  upon  to  resign  immediately  because  they  publicly  admitted 
in  that  vote  that  women  were  not  equal  to  men,  and  having  so 
admitted,  the  only  thing  for  them  to  do  is  resign.  They  were 
appointed  to  represent  women,  not  to  be  dictated  to  by  men.  They 
have  failed  in  their  duty  and  they  should  leave  the  Board.  As  a 
citizen  and  a  taxpayer  I  would  call  upon  them  to  resign  immedi- 
ately, for  having  admitted  that  they  were  not  men's  equal;  they 
should  not  serve  on  the  same  Board  on  an  equality  with  men. 

There  is  just  one  more  thing  that  I  would  like  to  say  and  that  I 
would  say  with  pleasure:  That  all  the  people  in  this  great  city 
should  fight  with  you  and  for  your  cause  until  you  have  won  the 
fight, — a  noble  cause  that  should  appeal  to  every  man  who  believes 
in  a  "  square  deal "  to  his  fellow  men.  Let  us  give  a  "  square 
deal "  also  to  women  who  are  entitled  to  all  our  rights,  and  to  my 
mind,  two  more:  The  right  of  man's  sympathy  and  of  man's 
protection. 


PART  FIVE— CHAPTER  ONE 
ENDORSEMENTS 

By  a  "  club  to  club  "  canvass  among  civic,  labor  and  tax- 
payers' organizations,  we  secured  endorsements  for  our 
"  equal  pay  "  bill  from  more  than  300,000  voters. 

Scores  of  organizations  have  been  won  over  to  the  "  equal 
pay  for  equal  work  "  cause  by  the  women's  representatives, 
who  secured  hearings  from  three  to  five  associations  every 
week  and  explained  the  women  teachers'  bill  in  open  meet- 
ing. 

I  am  confident  we  would  have  secured  even  more  en- 
dorsements were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  many  of  the  men 
teachers  were  members  of  the  organizations  we  addressed. 
In  several  cases  they  prevented  prompt  endorsement  of  our 
bill  by  moving  that  the  organization's  action  upon  it  be  post- 
poned until  a  later  meeting. 

An  instance  of  this  character  took  place  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Flushing  Association,  when  John  Holley  Clark,  prin- 
cipal of  the  local  high  school,  moved  that  the  association's 
action  upon  the  "  equal  pay "  bill  be  postponed  until  the 
next  meeting.  Mr.  Baumeister,  a  teacher,  seconded  this 
motion,  and  it  was  carried. 

Despite  the  opposition  of  the  men  teachers,  however,  we 
have  secured  the  support  of  sixty-five  civic,  labor  and  tax- 
payers' organizations,  representing  more  than  200,000 
voters.     (See  list  following.) 

We  are  especially  pleased  with  the  endorsements  of  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  as  several  members  of  the  Board  of 
Education  opposed  to  our  bill  laid  great  stress  on  the  anti- 
corporal  punishment  attitude  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  at 
the  recent  hearing  on  corporal  punishment.  One  of  the 
members,  Commissioner  Robert  L.  Harrison,  said  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  was  very  close  to  the  people  and  represented 
their  views  better,  perhaps,  than  any  other  body  in  the  city, 

545 


546         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

Now  that  the  Aldermen  have  unanimously  endorsed  the 
"  equal  pay  "  bill,  we  are  hopeful  that  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion may  regard  the  Aldermen's  action  as  reflecting  the  at- 
titude of  the  people  and  assist  us,  instead  of  fighting  our 
salary  measure. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  our  reply  to  Senator 
Fuller  in  1908:  "Again  is  Senator  Fuller  mistaken  in  the 
following  statement :  *  And  I  speak  now  with  the  authority 
of  not  only  New  York  City  individual  citizens,  but  of  tax- 
payers' associations,  who  have  considered  this  matter,  hav- 
ing held  joint  debate  between  the  women  and  the  men,  and 
I  have  in  my  hand  a  circular  stating  that  the  feelings  of 
these  various  associations  are  against  the  bill.  Here  are 
some  of  them :  Flatbush  Taxpayers'  Association,  the  Pros- 
pect Heights  Citizens'  Association;  South  Brooklyn  Board 
of  Trade ;  the  Downtown  Taxpayers'  Association ;  the  Park 
Board  of  Trade;  the  Fulton  Street  Board  of  Trade;  the 
North  Side  Board  of  Trade;  the  Old  Jones  Park,  and  the 
Central  and  Smith  Street  Associations;  and  the  Twenty- 
third  Ward  Property  Owners'  Association.'  While  it  is 
true  that  last  year  the  Downtown  Taxpayers'  Association 
and  the  Fulton  Street  Board  of  Trade  did  grant  us  a  hear- 
ing, I  challenge  Senator  Fuller  to  refute  the  statement  that 
not  one  of  the  Associations  named  has  heard  the  men  and 
the  women  in  joint  debate  on  this  year's  Bill.  Of  those 
named  only  the  North  Side  Board  of  Trade  gave  us  even 
a  partial  hearing  and  that  was  before  its  Committee  on 
Education.  I  challenge  him  further  to  refute  the  statement 
that  at  the  meeting  of  the  Flatbush  Taxpayers'  Associa- 
tion which  passed  a  resolution  disapproving  our  bill,  there 
were  present  only  about  5%  of  the  membership.  I  am  in- 
formed by  one  of  the  prominent  members  of  said  associa- 
tion that  probably  40  of  the  982  members  were  present,  and 
that  several  of  these  were  male  teachers.  I  am  informed 
also  by  a  prominent  member  of  the  Prospect  Heights  Asso- 
ciation that  a  male  principal  and  a  male  high  school  teacher, 
both  members  of  said  association,  were  given  full  and  free 
privilege  of  speaking  against  our  bill,  though  our  request 
for  a  hearing  was  not  granted.     In  the  South  Brooklyn 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         547 

Board  of  Trade  there  are  also  many  male  teachers.  Fur- 
thermore, Senator  Travis  spoke  before  this  Board  in  oppo- 
sition to  our  bill. 

"  Moreover,  side  by  side  with  the  short  list  of  associations 
supplied  by  Senator  Fuller,  we  can  place  a  list  of  endorse- 
ments of  two  hundred  and  fifty  civic,  political,  and  taxpay- 
ing  associations,  business  firms  and  labor  unions,  not  the 
least  of  which  is  the  unanimous  endorsement  of  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  New  York,  given  at  its  stated 
meeting  on  March  18,  1908;  also  thousands  of  individual 
endorsements  obtained  from  citizens  ranging  in  rank  from 
millionaires  to  laborers,  whose  names  have  been  cheerfully 
given  in  support  of  our  bill.  These  form  a  conclusive  refu- 
tation of  the  implication  that  taxpayers  generally  are  op- 
posed to  the  women  teachers.  In  fact,  it  is  generally  be- 
lieved that  if  the  question  under  discussion  could  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  voters  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  women 
teachers  would  win  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
"  Grace  C.  Strachan,  President, 
"  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers." 

BOARD  OF  ALDERMAN— LABOR  UNIONS 

The  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  New  York  at  its  stated  meeting, 
March  i8,  1908,  unanimously  endorsed  the  Women  Teachers'  Equal  Pay 
Bill  by  passing  the   following   resolution: 

Whereas,  Education  is  a  State  function,  and  the  Board  of  Education  in 
the  City  of  New  York  is  a  corporate  body  created  by  State  legislation  to 
carry  out  said  State  i'unction  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  since  the  salaries 
of  teachers  in  the  City  of  New  York  are  regulated  by  statute  law  known  as 
"The  Davis  Law,"   enacted   in    1900  by   State  legislation;  and 

Whereas,  Salaries  for  teachers  in  the  City  of  New  York  are  made  under 
the  provisions  of  said  Davis  Law  and  by  said  Board  of  Education  of  the 
City  of  New  York;  and 

Whereas,  According  to  by-laws  made  by  the  Board  of  Education  the  re- 
quirements for  women  are  the  same  as  those  for  men,  and  positions  of  the 
same  grade  are  given  to  both  men  and   women;  and 

Whereas,  The  salaries  given  to  women  doing  the  same  grade  of  work  are 
from  30  to  100  per  cent,  less  than  those  given  to  men  in  the  same  grade; 
and 

Whereas,  Said  Davis  Law  is  the  only  statute  law  in  the  State  of  New 
York  which  discriminates  against  women  as  economic  and  industrial  units, 
because  of  sex;  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  New  York  endorse 
the  amendment  to  the  Davis  Law,  known  as  "  The  Teachers'  Equal  Pay 
Bill,"  since  said  amendment  proposes  to  establish  the  principle  that  the  posi- 
tion shall  carry  the  salary  in  the  public  schools  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
and  since  its  provisions  greatly  extend  the  power  of  the  local  authorities  in 
the  matter  of  schedules  for  every  grade  of  the  public  school  system,  and 
since  said  bill  carries  a  four-mill  clause  providing  a  tax  of  four  mills  upon 
assessed  valuation  of  property  as  against  the  present  three-mill  provision,  and 


548         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

also  since  said  bill  carries  the  provision  that  93  per  cent,  of  said  fund 
shall  be  devoted  to  the  salaries  of  teachers  of  the  public  day  schools;  also 
be  it 

Kesolved,  That  copies  of  this  resolution  be  forwarded  to  Governor  Hughes 
and  the  Senate  and  Assembly  of  the   State  of  New  York. 

Adopted  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  March  18,  1908,  a  majority  of  all 
the  members  elected  voting  in  favor  thereof. 

P.   J.    Scully,    Clerk. 
Compared  and  Correct.     D.  M.  C, 
Fee  paid  Mar.  24,   1908. 
Jones,  Cashier. 

Extracts  from  address  of  Daniel  F.  Harris,  President  of  Workingmen's 
Federation  of  New  York  State  at  the  annual  convention  held  in  Syracuse, 
Sept.   17,    1907. 

The  bill  to  increase  and  equalize  the  pay  of  New  York  City  School  Teacii- 
ers  did  not  have  smooth  sailing.  It  was  opposed  by  the  Board  of  Education, 
also  by  a  number  of  male  teachers.  Endeavors  were  also  made  to  cause  a 
division  among  the  teachers  themselves.  In  spite  of  all  the  opposition  the 
bill  passed  both  houses,   but  was  vetoed  by   the   Mayor   of   New   York. 

The  bill  was  again  passed  over  the  veto,  but  was  subsequently  vetoed  by 
the  Governor. 

The  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  victimize  the 
leaders  in  this  fight  for  equal  rights  deserves  condemnation,  to  say  the  least, 
and  we  trust  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  equal  pay  for  equal  work 
will  be  the  rule  and  not  the  exception  in  all  branches  of  industry  reg^ardless 
of  sex. 

To  Whom  it  May  Concern: 

Whereas,  The  Consolidated  Board  of  Business  Agents  of  the  Building 
Trades  of  New  York  and  Vicinity,  fully  believe  that  the  Amendment  to  the 
Davis  Law,  introduced  by  Assemblyman  Robert  S.  Conklin,  January  29,  1908, 
known  as  Assembly  Bill  463  or  "  The  Teachers  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  is  equitable 
and  just; 

Whereas,  That  all  labor  performed  by  either  a  Male  of  Female  Teaclier  in 
our  Public  Schools,  should  be  on  equal  or  a  "  Prevailing  Rate  of  Wages " 
schedule,  irrespective  of  sex;  and. 

Whereas,  That  Bill  463  proposes  to  establish  the  principle  that  the  position 
shall  carry  the  salary  in  the  Public  Schools  of  the  City  of  New  York; 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  we,  the  Consolidated  Board  of  Business  Agents  of 
the  Building  Trades  of  New  York  and  Vicinity,  fully  endorse  and  go  on 
record,  as  advocating  the  passage  of  Assembly  Bill  463,  which  will  do  away 
with  the  present  discrimination  in  salaries  of  our  Teachers,  and  give  to  those 
■who  fulfill  their  duties,  one  hundred  cents  for  a  dollar's  worth  of  labor 
performed,  no  matter  whether  by  a  Male  or  a  Female  Teacher. 

[Consolidated    Board    of    Business 

Agents  of  N.  Y.  and  Vicinity. 
Organized  June,  1906. 

LABORE   omnia  VINCIT.] 

[Seal.] 
I  Respectfully    submitted    by    Con- 

solidated Board  of  Business  Agents 
Resolution  Committee, 

Paul   Sperling, 
Frank   Hirtzel, 
Joseph    LaMonte, 
Richard    Mortan, 
James    Lennon. 
Attest:     Roswell    D.    Tompkins, 
Board    Secretary. 
March  6,   1908. 
Representing  115,000  voters. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         549 

The  Board  of  Delegates  of  the  Building  Trades  of  Brooklyn  and 
Vicinity  endorses  the  "  Equal  Pay  Bill  "  supported  by  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  and  asks  the  Legislature  to  pass,  and  the 
Mayor  and  Governor  to  approve  the  same. 

Our  association  takes  this  action  because  it  believes: 

(a)  That  salary  is  the  wage  for  service  rendered; 

(b)  That  when  two  people— one  a  man,  and  the  other  a  woman — fulfill 
the  same  requirements,  pass  the  same  examinations,  and  are  then  appointed 
to   the  same   position,  they  should  receive   the  same   pay. 

(c)  That  the  present  law  as  incorporated  in  Section  1091,  of  the  Charter 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  indicating  salaries  for  "  male  "  teachers  i'rom 
fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent,  higher  than  those  for  "  female  "  teachers  in 
the  same  positions,  is  the  cause  of  great  injustice  to  thousands  of  the  City's 
best  servants,   and 

(d)  That  the  majority  of  the  taxpayers  are  willing  to  pay  one  dollar  more 
per  thousand  dollars,  to  supply  the  money  required  to  give  these  faithful 
servants  "  a  square  deal." 

Charles  Burns,   Secretary. 
Representing  75,000  members. 

INTERNATIONAL    BROTHERHOOD    OF    LOCOMOTIVE 
ENGINEERS 

There  is  not  a  locomotive  engineer,  nor  an  electric  motorman  that  would 
be  willing  to  see  a  woman  run  an  engine  or  motor  for  less  than  the  standard 
wages;  consequently  we  are  a  unit  in  wishing  that  you  succeed  in  obtaining 
your  just  dues,  viz.,  as  much  as  a  man  gets  for  the  same  work. 

Yours  fraternally, 

M.  C.  Baldwin,  F.  A.  E. 

Property  Owners*  Association  of  the  Twenty-third  Ward,  Bronx,  March 
a,  1908. 

Chas.    Baxter,    Chairman    Executive    Board, 

By   instruction   of   John    Hoffer,    President. 

SHOULD  HAVE  EQUAL  WAGES 
A  well-attended  meeting  of  the  Brooklyn  Economic  Society  was  held  at 
its  headquarters,  Fulton  and  Cranberry  Streets,  yesterday  ai'ternoon.  The 
subject  up  for  discussion  was:  "  Should  Women  Teachers  Receive  the  Same 
Salary  as  Male  Teachers?  "  After  a  very  animated  discussion  the  aflirmative 
side  was  sustained. — Eagle,  December,  1907. 

Extract  from  Minutes  of  the  Regular  Meeting  of  the  City  Island  Board 
of  Trade  held  at  Library  Guilding,   City   Island,   March   16,    1908: 

"  On  motion,  duly  made,  seconded  and  carried,  it  was  resolved  that  L.  B. 
Bigelow  be  appointed  a  delegate  to  the  Taxpayers'  Alliance  of  the  Bronx, 
which  meets  March  27,  1908,  at  Masonic  Hall,  177th  St.  and  3d  Ave.,  the 
Bronx,  and  that  he  be  instructed  to  cast  a  vote  in  favor  of  the  Women 
Teachers*  Equal  Pay  Bill,  now  pending  before  the  Legislature  of  New  York 
State." 

Leander  B.  Bigelow, 
Secretary  City  Island  Board  of  Trade. 

Brownville  Taxpayers*  Association  appointed  Dr.  N.  J.  Coyne,  Jacob 
Marman,  Isaac  Allen  and  Saul  C.  Lavine,  a  committee  to  favor  the  Gledhill- 
Foley  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  at  the  hearing  before  Mayor  McClellan,  May 
II,    1909. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Civic  League  of  the  Bronx: 

Resolved,  By  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Civic  League  of  the  Bronx  that 


550         EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

the    State   and   City  authorities  be   respectfully   urged   to   approve   of  the   bill 
known  as  the  Equal  Pay  Bill  for  Women  Teachers,  for  the  following  reasons: 

Under  the  present  salary  schedule,  a  woman  receives  $600  the  first  year 
($660  to  teach  boys)  while  a  man  is  paid  $900 — half  as  much  again  for  the 
same  work. 

In  the  9th  year  (7th  year,  if  boys),  with  the  experience  gained,  a  woman 
receives  no  more  than  a  man  without  experience  in  his  first  year. 

In  the  13th  year  a  man  receives  twice  as  much  as  a  woman  who  has  been 
the  same  number  of  years  in  the  service. 

After  teaching  17  years  a  woman  teacher  receives  less  than  a  man  in  his 
Sth  year. 

Both  have  to  follow  the  same  course  of  study  and  conform  to  the  same 
requirements,  standards,  and  teaching  qualifications. 

Equal  pay,  regardless  of  sex,  has  already  been  adopted  by  several  large 
cities.     It  is  a  matter  of  simple  justice  to  a  faithful  body  of  public  servants. 

Resolved,    That    a   copy   of   the    foregoing,    duly    attested   by   the    President 
and   Secretary,  be   transmitted  to  the  members  of  the   Legislature,  the   Mayor 
and  the  Governor,  and  to  the  public  press  of  this  City. 
Wishing  you  success,    I   am  very  sincerely  yours, 

Albert  E.  Davis,  President. 

March  9,   1908. 

THE   SOUTH  SIDE   CIVIC  LEAGUE  OF  JAMAICA,  N.   Y. 

I  am  directed  to  inform  you  that  at  the  last  meeting  of  our  Civic  League 
the  following  resolution  has  been  adopted: 

Whereas,  Thid  Civic  League  while  not  in  favor  of  the  bill  now  before  the 
Legislature,  amending  the  Davis'  salary  schedule  for  school  teachers;  be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  Civic  League  does  endorse  the  principle  of  equal  pay 
for  equal  services  to  all  civil  employees. 

Yours  truly, 

Samuel    Sanders,    President. 
G.    Maine,    Cor.    Sec'y- 
April  10,  1908. 

TAXPAYERS'  LEAGUE  OF  RICHMOND  HILL 

Member  of  the  United  Civic  Associations  of  the  Borough  of  Queens  and 
the  Allied  Civic  Associations,  4th  Ward,   Borough  of  Queens. 

Richmond  Hill,  N.   Y.,  March  24,   1908. 
At  a  well  attended  meeting  of  this  League  on  the    17th  inst.,   the   Women 
Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  was  endorsed  by  a  good  sized  majority. 

I  have  accordingly  notified  Governor  Hughes  and   Assemblyman  De  Groot. 
[Seal.] 

CENTRAL  LABOR  UNION 

BOROUGHS    OP    BROOKLYN    AND    QUEENS,     COMPRISING    THE    FOLLOWING: 

Pattern  Makers;  Park  Employees;  Piano  &  Organ,  No.  27;  Plumbers,  No. 
i;  Pressman,  No.  26;  Pressman,  No.  51;  Painters,  No.  670;  Painters,  No. 
1006;  Riggers  No.  11561;  Theatrical  Employees,  No.  4;  Steamfitters'  Asso- 
ciation, No.  1 ;  United  Brewery  Workers  Local,  No.  24,  of  the  City  of  New 
York;  White  Stone  Workers,  No.  41;  Compact  Labor  Club;  Machinists,  No. 
401;  Reliance  Labor  Club;  Upholsterers*  Union,  Local  39,  U.  I.  U.  of  N.  Y. ; 
Plumbers  and  Gasfitters,  Local  No.  498,  N.  Y. ;  Bricklayers'  Union,  No.  35; 
Typographical  Union,  No.  6;  Central  Federated  Union;  Local  476,  U.  B.  of 
C.  &  J.  of  America;  Local  375,  Carpenters  &  Joiners  of  America,  243-47; 
Sheep  Butchers'  Protective  Union,  Local  No.  10,  B.  B.  W.  of  America; 
Carpenters'  Local  Union,  309,  U.  B.  of  C;  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters 
and  Joiners  of  America;  District  Assembly,  No.  220,  Knights  of  Labor,  this 
organization  numbers  over  10,000  members;  New  York  State  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Firemen  and  Enginemen;  New  York  State  Allied  Printing  Trades 
Council;  Amalgamated  Association  of  Street  and  Electrical  Railway  Em- 
ployees  of   America;   Auburn   Trades  Assembly;    Oneida   Trades   and   Labor 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         551 

Assembly;  Norwich  Trades  Assembly;  Jamestown  Central  Labor  Council; 
Batavia  Trades  Council;  Local  497  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners  of  America;  Wine,  Liquor  and  Beer  Dealers'  Association,  28th  Dis- 
trict; United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters,  Local  382;  Local  724  of  the  United 
Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners;  L.  U.  848,  Brotherhood  Painters,  Dec. 
and  P.  of  America;  Indorsed  by  L.  N.,  No.  11,  A.  S.  M.  W.  I.  A.;  Tex- 
tile  Workers'  Industrial  Union  of  U.  S.;  Inside  Electrical  Workers  of 
Greater  New  York;  Piano  Makers'  Union,  Local  16;  Longshoremen's  Union 
Protective  Association,  Branch  No.  4;  New  York  District  Council,  Brother- 
hood of  Painters,  of  the  City  of  New  York;  Workingmen's  Federation,  New 
York  State;  International  Brotherhood  of  Teamsters'  Joint  Council;  Asso- 
ciation of  Janitors  and  Engineers;  The  Workmen's  Educational  Association; 
Metal  Spinners  of  New  York  and  Vicinity;  Troy  Trades  Assembly. 

SIMILAR   RESOLUTIONS   WERE   PASSED   BY 

Central  Flatbush  Taxpayers'  Association;  Taxpayers'  and  Rentpayers'  As- 
sociation of  the  30th  and  31st  Wards,  Brooklyn;  East  Morrisania  Taxpayers' 
or  Property  Owners'  Association;  Third  Ward  Property  Owners'  Association, 
Bronx;  The  Heights  Taxpayers'  Association,  Bronx,  endorses  the  "  Equal 
Pay  Bill  "  supported  by  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers 
and  asks  the  Legislature  to  pass,  and  the  Mayor  and  the  Governor  to  ap- 
prove the  same;  Ocean  Hill  Board  of  Trade;  24th  Ward  Board  of  Trade; 
The  Grand  Street  Board  of  Trade,  Brooklyn;  West  End  Board  of  Trade, 
Brooklyn;  Ridgewood  Board  oi'  Trade;  N.  Y.  District  Council,  Brotherhood 
of  Painters,  of  the  City  of  New  York;  The  26th  Ward  Board  of  Trade, 
Brooklyn,  endorses  the  "  Equal  Pay  Bill "  supported  by  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers  and  asks  the  Legislature  to  pass,  and  the 
Mayor  and  the  Governor  to  approve  the  same;  Grocery  Clerks,  No.  iioo; 
Retail  Clerks,  No.  1132;  Engineers,  No.  56;  Engineers,  No.  319;  Elevators' 
Conductors,  No.  2;  Electrical  Workers,  inside;  Electrical  Workers,  No.  270; 
Electrical  Workers,  No.  419;  Electrical  Workers,  No.  522;  Flour  &  Cereal, 
No.  3;  Foundry  Employees,  No.  9;  Marine  Firemen;  Flint  Glass  Workers, 
No.  i;  Glass  Bottle  Blowers,  No.  52;  Flint  Glass,  No.  69;  United  Hatters, 
No.  7;  United  Hatters,  No.  8;  Horse  Shoers,  No.  7;  Plumbers'  Laborers, 
No.  iss;  Moulders,  No.  445;  Moulders,  No.  22;  Moulders,  No.  96;  Musi- 
cians, No.  310;  Metal  Polishers,  No.  12;  Mailers,  No.  6;  Mailers,  No.  9463; 
Teamsters,  No.  375;  Teamsters,  No.  499;  Teamsters,  No.  592;  Teamsters,  No. 
763;  Teamsters'  Milk  Routemen's  Union;  Typographical,  No.  6;  Uphol- 
sterers, No.  121;  Waiters,  No.  2;  Wood  Workers,  No.  249;  Bartenders,  No. 
70;  Wire  Weavers;  Actors'  Union,  No.  2;  Bookkeepers  and  Accountants; 
Bill  Posters,  No.  33;  Boot  &  Shoe  Workers,  No.  160;  Brush  Makers,  No. 
6;  Brewery  Workers,  No.  59;  Pipe  Caulkers  &  Tappers;  Calcium  Light 
Operators,  No.  35;  Cigar  Makers,  No.  37;  Cigar  Makers,  No.  87;  Clothing 
Cutters,  No.  5;  Street  Car  Employees,  No.  283;  Metropolitan  Association 
of  Retail  Druggists;  The  -New  York  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association;  Hudson  River  Pharmaceutical  Association;  The  Manhattan  Phar- 
maceutical Associatij3n;  New  York  German  Apothecary  Association;  Uphol- 
sterers, No.  3. 

Resolved,  That  this  Association  known  as  Sheet  Metal  Workers,  L.  U. 
No.  1 1  ■  of  the  City  of  N«w  York  endorse  the  amendment  to  the  Davis  Law 
known  as  "  The  Teachers*  Equal  Pay  Bill." 

Manhattan   Lodge,  I.   A.  of  M. 
Local  No.  402  op  the  City  of  New  York, 

CARRIAGE  AND  WAGON  WORKERS  INTERNATIONAL  UNION 

It  is  one  of  our  fundamental  principles  that  women  should  receive  equal 
pay   for  equal  work. 

I  wish  to  state  personally  that  I  will  do  anything  in  my  power  to  aid  you 


552         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

in  getting  "  The  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill  "  made  a  law.  I  am  writing  a 
letter  to  the  Senator  and  Assemblyman  from  this  district  asking  them  to 
give  it  their  support,  and  I  will  endeavor  to  have  some  of  my  friends  from 
this  district  (the  3Sth  Assem.)   to  do  the  same. 

If  I  can  aid  you  in  any  other  manner,  if  you  will  me  know  in  what  way, 
I  will  be  only  too  glad  to  do  so,  and  will  feel  it  an  honor  if  I  can  be  of 
assistance  to  your  organization  in  the  slightest  degree. 

John  D.  Atherton,  Sec.  No.  s. 

March  g,   1908. 

Hon.  Michael  J.   Flaherty,   ex-Sheriff;   Charles  E.   Gehring. 

New  York,  March  23,  1908. 
The  Taxp.\yeb3  Alliance, 

Hon.  A.   C.  Hottenroth,   President. 

My  Dear  Sir. — According  to  motion  prevailing  at  the  last  regular  meeting 
of  the  Alliance,  referring  the  matter  of  the  Davis  Bill,  or  Equal  Pay  Bill, 
to  the  Local  Associations,  I  would  respectfully  state  that  the  delegates  from 
the  Bedford  Park  Taxpayers'  Association  to  your  honorable  body,  were  in- 
structed to  oppose  the  measure,  at  your  special  meeting  on  Wednesday 
evening,  2Sth   inst. 

As  I,  personally,  am  in  favor  of  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  feeling 
that  the  opposition  shown  at  the  meeting  of  the  B.  Pk.  Taxpayers'  Associa- 
tion- did  not  voice  the  sentiment  of  our  membership  (there  being  but  about 
one-fifth  present)  I  would  strenuously  protest  again  my  name  being  used  as 
an  opponent  to  the  measure,  and  if  any  record  is  kept  of  the  friends  of  the 
movement,   I  wish  my  name  recorded  among  them. 

No  plausible  reason  ,has,  as  yet,  been  brought  out  why  the  Governor  should 
not  sign  the  bill,  excepting  that  the  applicants  are  women. 

No  self-respecting  man,  if  he  loves  his  mother,  would  advance  such  a 
reason. 

We  are  living  in  a  free  and  enlightened  country  (not  a  monarchy)  where 
all  are  equal,  and  where  the  services  of  one,  male  or  female,  should  be 
worth  the  same  as  another,  particularly  in  our  school  system,  in  parallel 
grades. 

With  assurances  of  my  esteem, 

I  am  yours  very  truly, 

Daniel  A.  McCormick. 

N.  B. — I  would  add.  that  no  notice  of  this  special  business,  was  sent  to  the 
members  of  the  B.  P.  T.  Assn.  D.  A.  McC. 

The  following  business  firms  have  formally  endorsed  our  Equal  Pay  Bill: 
Abraham  &  Straus;  A,  Alexander;  Arnold  &  Co.;  H.  M.  Baum;  Ludwig, 
Bauman  &  Co.;  L.  M.  Blumstein;  Bonwit,  Teller  &  Co.;  Buckley-Newhall 
Co.;  Alfred  Cammeyer;  John  Daniell  Sons  &  Sons;  Frazin  &  Oppenheim  & 
Co.;  Fisher  Bros.;  Greenhut  &  Co.;  Hackett,  Carhart  &  Co.;  Kalnius  Bros.; 
Thomas  Kelly;  Klauber  Bros.  &  Co.;  E.  C.  Batten;  W.  L.  Boyde;  John 
Wanamaker;  Koch  &  Sons;  James  McCreery  &  Co.;  Mahler  Bros.;  T.  A.  & 
L.  Y.  Newman;  O'Neill-Adams  Co.;  John  D.  O'Neill  &  Sons;  Oppenheim, 
Collins  &  Co.;  P.  Morton  Oppenheim  &  Co.;  J.  Parsleys  Sons;  M.  Philipsborn 
Co.;  Saks  &  Co.;  Simpson,  Crawford  Co.;  The  14th  Street  Store;  A.  A. 
Vantine;   John   B.   Van   Wagenen;   Young    Bros.;    Bloomingdale    Bros. 

CLUBS— POLITICAL 

INDEPENDENCE    LEAGITE 

Whereas,   The    Independence    League   stands   for   the   principle   of    "  Equal 

rights  for  all  and  special  privileges  to  none  ";  and 

Whereas,    The    Interborough    Association    of    Women    Teachers     are    now 
The   communcations    of   the    Interborough    Association   of    Women   Teachers 

receive  "  equal  pay  for  equal  work  ";  and 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK         553 

Wheseas,  We  believe  that  when  the  same  requirements  are  fulfilled,  the 
same  examination  passed  and  the  same  positions  assigned,  the  same  remunera- 
tion should  be  received,  regardless  of  sex;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  Independence  League  of  the  Twenty-second  Assembly 
District,  County  of  Kings,  endorse  the  amendment  to  the  Davis  Law,  known 
as  the  "  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill,"  as  the  amendment  proposes  to  establish 
the  principle  that  the  position — not  the  sex — shall  carry  the  salary;   also  be  it 

Resolved,  That  copies  of  the  resolution  be  forwarded  to  Governor  Hughes, 
and  the  Senator  and  Assemblyman  of  the  loth  Senatorial  District,  and  22d 
Assembly  District. 

S.   J.   Trapanic,    Secretary, 
Alfred   Hughes,    Leader. 

A  similar  resolution  was  passed  by  the  Tamaror  Club,  and  signed  by  Ros- 
well  D.  Williams,  Peter  J.  Falligan,  John  T.  Maquire,  John  S.  Dunn,  Jr., 
John  M.  Wilson,   David  W.  DowHng. 

Also  by  the  Seneca  Club:  George  E.  LaMont,  Secretary;  James  I.  Atchison, 
president,   and  forwarded  with  following  letter: 

New  York,  March  6,   1908. 
The   endorsement   of  the   Women   Teachers'    Equal    Pay   Bill   passed   unani- 
mously last  evening  at  the  meeting  of  the  Seneca  Club,  which  is  the  Demo- 
cratic  political   club   of   the   Twenty-fifth   Assembly   District,    Manhattan. 

The    endorsement    was    unanimous    and    many    kind    words    were    spoken    in 
behalf  of  the  women  teachers  in  their  fight  for  equal  pay  rights. 
With  best  wishes  for  your  success, 

James   I.    Atchison,    President, 
George   E.    La    Mont,    Secretary, 
Geo.  F.  Scannell. 

Your  communication  of  the  19th  inst.  addressed  to  the  Queens  County 
Republican  Committee,  requesting  the  endorsement  of  that  organization,  was 
received,  and  on  motion  it  was  referred  to  the  Legislative  Committee,  which 
is  the  customary  action  in  such  matters.  That  committee  has  given  your 
matter  its  consideration  and  heartily  endorses  your  petition,  and  at  the  next 
regular  meeting  will  report  its  action  to  the  whole  committee,  which  will,  no 
doubt,  confirm  the  endorsement. 

Assuring  you  of  my  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  your  undertaking,  I 
remain. 

Mar.  21,   1908.  John  D.   McEwen, 

Chairman  of   Legislative  Committee. 

The  communications  of  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers' 
recently  addressed  to  Congressman  William  S.  Bennet,  were  personally  pre- 
sented by  him  to  the  Republican  District  Committee  of  the  Nineteenth  As- 
sembly District  Borough  of  Manhattan,  at  its  last  meeting;  whereupon  a 
resolution  was  offered  and  unanimously  carried,  whereby  said  District  Com- 
mittee placed  itself  on  record  as  favoring  the  passage  of  the  bill  now  in  the 
Legislature,  which  provides  among  other  things,  that  where  men  and  women 
are  appointed  to  positions  of  the  same  grade  or  rank,  that  they  shall  receive 
the  same  pay. 

Andrew   F.    Murray, 
Chairman  of  the  Nineteenth  Assembly  District. 

March  3,  1908. 

Dear  Madam. — This  is  to  certify  that  the  members  of  the  North  End 
Democratic  Club  of  the  3Sth  Assembly  District  have  approved  and  endorsed 
the  resolutions  of  the  Women  Teachers'  Association  for  equal  pay  for  equal 
work. 

Daniel  A.  McCormick,   Secretary. 

The  Patrick  F.  Lynch  Democratic  Association  of  the  Twenty-third  Assem- 
bly District  unanimously  endorsed  the  McCarren  Bill,  increasing  the  teachers' 
salaries. 


554         EQUAL  PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK 

The  Amsterdam  Democratic  Club,  at  a  regular  meeting  held  at  its  Onh 
House  and  Auditorium,  at  No.  131  West  64th  street,  New  York,  N.  Y.,  the 
20th  day  of  December,  1909,  on  motion  ol'  Hon.  John  B.  Adger  Mullally, 
which  was  duly  seconded  by  Hon.  Joseph  Gordon  and  others  and  unanimously 
carried. 

Resolved,  That  the  Amsterdam  Democratic  Club  is  in  most  hearty  sympathy 
with  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  in  its  effort  to  secure 
some  measure  of  justice  for  Women  Teachers,  especially  in  respect  to  the 
matter  of  their  inadequate,  unfair  and  unequal  compensation;  and  that  this 
Club,  recognizing  the  great  debt,  which  can  not  be  measured  in  material 
terms,  due  to  the  women  who  teach  our  little  ones,  wishes  the  officers  and 
members  of  the  Women  Teachers'  Association  Godspeed  in  their  undertakings 
and  God's  richest  blessings  individually  and  collectively. 

Attest:     Albert  E.  Walker,   Secretary. 

Whereas,  The  Socialist  party  the  world  over  stands  for  the  principle  of 
equal  rights,  without  distinction  as  to  color,  creed   or  sex,  and 

Whereas,  In  matters  of  education  we  demand  that  the  State  should  afford 
to  every  child  the  opportunity  for  harmonious  development  of  all  its  facul- 
ties, therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  endorse  the  struggle  of  the  women  teachers  of 
the  City  of  New  York  in  their  demand  of  "  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work  " ; 

Resolved,  That  we  stand  ready  to  co-operate  with  any  movement  honestly 
endeavoring  to  bring  our  educational  system  nearer  to  our  ideal  of  true 
education. 

Approved  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee,  S.  P.,  Local 
New  York,  March  23,    1908. 

Attest:  Moses  Oppenheimer, 
Francis  M.   Gill, 

Sub-Committee  of  the  Executive   Committee. 

SIMILAR  RESOLUTIONS  WERE  PASSED  BY: 

Tammany  Hall  General  Committee,  30th  Assembly  District,  Wm.  J.  Sinnott, 
Executive  Member;  The  John  F.  Curry  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York; 
Progress  Republican  Club;  The  Jefferson  Club,  5th  Assembly  District,  Brook- 
lyn; ^tna  Club  of  Brooklyn;  Alpha  Republican  Club,  15th  Assembly  District, 
Brooklyn;  Jeffersonian  Democratic  Club;  Manhattan  Single  Tax  Club;  Mount 
Morris  Democratic  Club;  East  Side  Clinic  for  Children,  Adelaide  Waller- 
stein,  M.  D.,  President;  East  Side  Clinic;  Columbus  Lodge  No.  24,  Order  of 
True  Friends;  Arbeiter  Maenerchor,  N.  Y. ;  Maenerchor  Des  Mobelarbeiter, 
243-247  East  84th  St.,   Manhattan;   Socialistic  Liedertafel,   N.   Y. 

THE   "EQUAL   PAY"   BILL  WAS  ALSO   ENDORSED   BY: 

Sterling  Republican  Club,  Manhattan;  Bedford  Political  Equality  League; 
Queens  County  Democratic  Central  Committee;  The  North  End  Democratic 
Association  of  the  Bronx,  35th  Assembly  District;  Pensa  Club;  Bushwick 
Political  Equality  Club;  President  Rubinstein  Club;  6th  Assembly  District 
Democratic  Club;  P.  F.  Lynch,  23d  Assembly  District  Club;  Independence 
League,  12th  Assembly  District;  Independence  League,  First  Assembly  Dis- 
trict; Independence  League,  Fourth  Assembly  District;  Interborough  Council 
(consists  of  Presidents  of  Borough  Teachers'  Associations) ;  Jackson  Associa- 
tion, 34th  Assembly  District;  i8th  Assembly  District  Republican  Club;  Seneca 
Club  of  Kings  County;  Wampauoag  Club,  32d  Assembly  District;  Jefferson 
Club,  5th  Assembly  District;  Third  Ward  Republican  Club;  Independence 
League,  20th  District;  South  Brooklyn  Republican  Club;  Court  Vittorio 
Eraanuele  II,  N.  435  F.  or  A.;  Arthur  H.  Murphy  Association,  Bronx  (34th 
Assembly  District);  St.  Veronica  C.  Club,  451  Hudson  St.,  City  of  New 
York;  Kings  County  Democratic  Party,  First  Assembly  District;  Kings  County 
Political  Equality  League. 


PART  SIX— CHAPTER  ONE 

DOCUMENTS 

To  the  Members  of  the  Charter  Re'.'ision  Commissioni 
Hon.  William  M.  Ivins,  Chairman. 

Sirs. — ^The  twelve  thousand  members  oi  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women  Teachers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  representing  every  grade  and 
department  of  the  public  school  service  from  kindergarten  to  district  superin- 
tendent, inclusive,  is  unanimous  in  its  petition  that  you  recommend  such  a 
revision  of  the  Chapter  on  Education  as  will  secure: 

A. — Salary   for  position,  regardless  of  sex  of  incumbent; 

B. — State  protection  of  minimum  salaries; 

C. — Greater  minimum  than  "  three  mills  "  as  required  in  Section  1064  of 
the  Charter. 


C. — Greater  Minimum  than  "  Three  Mills  "  as  Required  in  Section  1064 
OF  THE  Charter 

In  connection  with  request  "  C,"  we  beg  you  to  consider  the  following 
extract  from  "Memorandum  on  Senate  Bill  1218"  (familiarly  known  as  the 
*'  White  Bill "  or  the  "  Teachers'  Equal  Pay  Bill ")  submitted  to  Governor 
Hughes  by  Horace  E.  Deming: 

"  The  State  has  never  hesitated,  either  in  New  York  or  in  the  other 
States  of  the  Union,  to  take  effective  measures  to  compel  a  gh'en  locality  to 
raise  by  taxation  sufficient  funds  to  maintain  a  proper  system  of  education. 
When  the  State  standard  of  what  should  be  expended  for  education,  in  view 
of  the  general  interests  of  the  publicj  is  higher  than  the  local  standard  the 
locality  sometimes  fails  to  raise  enough  money  by  taxation  to  support  the 
schools  according  to  the  State  standard.  To  meet  this  niggardliness  on  the 
part  of  the  local  taxing  officers,  resort  is  sometimes  had  to  the  conferring  of 
direct  powers  of  taxation  on  boards  of  education,  or  to  mandatory  legislation 
directing  that  such  and  such  a  per  cent,  of  the  annual  tax  levy  in  the  locality 
shall  be  devoted  to  school  purposes. 

"  When  the  Greater  City  of  New  York  was  created  the  experiment  was 
tried  of  having  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  act  upon  the  bud- 
get which  the  Board  of  Education  prepared,  setting  forth  the  needs  of  the 
department  of  education.  Experience  soon  made  it  clear  that  the  Board  of 
Estimate  and  Apportionment  would  not  willingly  allow  a  sufficient  sum  ade- 
quately to  support  education  in  New  York.  The  Legislature  was  compelled, 
therefore,  to  state  a  minimum  figure  and  to  order  that  at  least  that  amount 
should  be  collected  in  the  City  of  New  York  and  devoted  to  the  purposes  of 
education.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  four-mill  provision  contained  in  the 
so-called  Davis  Law  of  1900,  now  incorporated  in  section  1064  of  the  New 
York  Charter. 

"  When  the  City  authorities  announced  that  property  in  New  York  would 
thereafter  be  assessed  at  one  hundred  per  cent,  of  its  market  value,  it  was 
thought  that  the  four-mill  provision  would  produce  more  money  than  was 
needed,  and  the  City  authorities  asked  the  Legislature,  therefore,  to  reduce 
the  four  mills  to  three.  This  was  done  in  1903.  But  the  raising  of  the 
assessed  values  to  one  hundred  per  cent,  of  the  market  value  never  really 
materialized,  and  the  tiiree-mill  provision  has  proved  insufficient." 

Hence  our  request  for  the  restoration  of  the  i'ourth  mill. 

555 


556         EQUAL   PAY   FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

II 

B — State    Protection    op    Minimum    Salaries 

In  connection  with  request  "  B,"  we  ask  you  to  consider  that  the  State 
in  its  Constitution  makes  mandatory  the  establishing  of  common  schools  and 
the  education  of  its  children  therein.  We  believe,  therefore,  that  the  State 
should  also  make  mandatory  the  minimum  wage  to  be  paid  its  servants  in 
this  department. 

It  is  within  the  memory  of  every  member  of  your  Honorable  Body  that 
prior  to  the  enactment  of  the  "  Davis  Law,"  teachers  could  not  know  from 
year  to  year,  sometimes  even  from  month  to  month,  what  salaries  they  would 
receive,  the  demands  of  Dock,  Bridge,  Street,  Police,  Fire  and  other  depart- 
ments always  being  considered  superior  to  those  of  teachers'  salaries.  It  is 
evident  that  teachers  cannot  do  their  best  work  under  such  conditions.  It  is 
useless  for  them  to  plan  to  improve  themselves  by  study,  as  they  cannot  be 
sure  of  being  financially  able  to  carry  out  said  plans.  The  great  strides 
forward  which  the  teachers  of  our  city  have  made  since  the  State  has  pro- 
tected them  in  minimum  salaries  are  patent  to  all  acquainted  with  our  school 
system. 

The  following  extracts  irom  the  "  Memorandum  in  Support  of  Senate 
Bill  1218  "  submitted  to  Governor  Hughes  by  Horace  E.  Deming  are  convinc- 
ing on  this  point: 

Page  4:  "  From  time  immemorial  education  has  been  in  the  special  care 
of  the  State.  Education  is  a  State  function.  ,  No  State  in  the  Union  has 
ever  surrendered  this  function,  or  has  abdicated  the  right  to  exercise  the 
function. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  Article  IX,  declares  that 
the  Legislature  shall  provide  for  the  maintenance  and  support  of  a  system  of 
free  common  schools  wherein  all  the  children  of  this  State  may  be  educated — 
all  the  children  of  this   State;   not   some  of  them,   but  all  of  them." 

Page  5:  "The  Gunnison  case,  decided  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  1903 
(176  N.  Y.,  11),  states  very  clearly  the  precise  legal  status  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  The  decision  is  by  a  unanimous  court,  consisting  of  Chief  Judge 
Parker  and  Judges  Gray,  Barlett,  Haight,  Cullen,  Werner  and  O'Brien, 
unanimously  affirming  a  decision  of  the  Appellate  Division,  Second  Depart- 
ment, made  by  Goodrich,  P.  J.,  and  Bartlett,  Woodward,  Jenks  and  Hirsch- 
herg,  JJ.,  Justice  Hirschberg  writing  the  opinion  at  the  Appellate  Division 
and  Justice  O'Brien  in  the  Court  of  Appeals." 

Extract  from  said  opinion :  "  It  is  apparent  from  the  general  drift  of  the 
argument  that  the  learned  counsel  for  the  defendant  is  of  the  opinion  that 
the  employment  of  the  teachers  in  the  public  schools  and  the  general  con- 
duct and  management  of  the  schools  is  a  city  function,  in  the  same  sense 
as  it  is  in  the  case  of  the  care  of  the  streets  or  the  employment  of  police 
and  the  payment  of  their  salaries  and  compensation.  But  that  view  of  the 
relations  of  the  City  to  public  education,  if  entertained,  is  an  obvious  mis- 
take."— "  These  corporate  powers  are  expressly  conferred  upon  this  defendant 
by  the  City  Charter  (Section  1062)  .  .  .  The  only  purpose  for  which  the 
defendant  was  created  a  corporate  body  was  to  conduct  a  system  of  public 
education  in  a  designated  division  of  the  State,  and  manage  and  control  the 
schools  therein.  This  obviously  includes  the  employment  and  payment  of 
teachers,  and  none  of  these  powers  or  functions  are  conferred  upon  the  City 
as  such." 

We  believe  the  above  justifies  our  appeal  i'or  State  protection  of  minimum 
salaries. 

Ill  is  included  in  Part  I. 


EQUAL   PAY   FOR   EQUAL    WORK         557 

ANSWER   TO   MAYOR  McCLELLAN'S   VETO   MESSAGE   ON    SENATE 

BILL  1218 

SUMMARY    OF    OBJECTIONS 

1.  Bill  is  mandatory  and  places  enormous  expense  on  the  taxpayers. 

2.  Local   authorities  have  the   powers  the  bill   gives  them. 

3.  The  bill   is  class   legislation   pure  and   simple. 

4.  The  bill   destroyes  the   elasticity   oi  the  present  school   system. 

Any  unprejudiced  student  of  Senate  Bill  1218  must  acknowledge  that  it  is 
mandatory  in  a  far  less  degree  than  Section  1091  of  the  Charter  which  it 
seeks  to  amend. 

In  eliminating  all  definite  and  distinct  schedules  it  leaves  the  making  of 
salary  schedules  entirely  to  the  Board  of  Education,  stipulating  only  some 
broad  general  principles,  which  have  been  generally  recognized  as  just  and 
practical. 

Therefore,  inasmuch  as  this  bill  restores  in  great  measure,  the  "  Home 
Rule,"  taken  from  the  city  by  the  enactment  of  the  Davis  Law  in  1900,  it 
would  seem  the  part  of  wisdom  and  good  citizenship  to  assist  in  this  res- 
toration. 

"  The  enormous  expense  to  the  taxpayers  "  is  fully  covered  by  the  "  four 
mill  provision"  (page  7,  lines  1-6).  The  Davis  Law  (1900)  contained  this 
identical  provision.  In  1902,  the  Board  of  Education  asked  the  Legislature 
to  reduce  the  "  four "  to  "  three,"  because  it  estimated  that  a  three  mill 
fund  would  be  sufficient  if  Controller  Grout's  plan  to  assess  taxes  on  a  hun- 
dred per  cent,  valuation  should  be  carried  out.  Since  this  "  par  vaFue " 
plan  never  materialized,  it  is  only  fair  to  restore  the  "  mill "  taken  away 
from  the  teachers'  salary  fund,  in  anticipation  thereof. 

SECOND  OBJECTION 

"  Local  authorities  have  the  powers  the  bill  gives  them." 
The  local  authorities,  as  represented  in  the  Board  of  Education,  refused 
to  grant  the  principle  that  women  employed  in  the  same  grade  should  be 
paid  under  the  same  schedule.  Hence  the  appeal  to  "  Albany."  Further- 
more, the  local  authorities  have  not  the  power  to  amend  the  charter  of  the 
City  of  New  York  and  remove  therefrom  the  words  "  male  "  and  "  female  " 
as  applied  to  teachers.  Previous  to  the  passage  of  the  Davis  Law  there  was 
no  discrimination  in  salaries  on  account  of  sex,  in  the  school  systems  of 
Brooklyn  and  other  parts  of  the  present  City  of  New  York.  Should  not  the 
Legislature,  therefore,  be  permitted  to  make  restitution  to  the  citizens  it  then 
injured? 

THISD  OBJECTION 

"  The  bill  is  class  legislation  favoring  certain  grades  of  women." 
It   is   a  deplorable   fact   that  the   "  local  authorities  "   seem  unable  to  state 
the  facts  in  this  connection. 

Mr.  Stern,  representing  the  Board  oi'  Education  at  a  hearing  on  this  bill 
before  the  Assembly  Cities  Committee  on  April  23.  1907,  said  there  was  a 
man  teacher  in  the  lA  grade  receiving  $2,160.  At  the  hearing  before  Mr. 
McClellan,  Monday  May  6,  1907,  the  said  Mr.  Stern,  representing  the  said 
Board  of  Education,  read  a  letter  from  Mr.  Maxwell,  City  Superintendent, 
in  which  Mr.  Maxwell  rei'erred  to  the  519  men  from  the  2B  through  the  6B. 
Out  of  their  own  mouths,  therefore,  have  the  opponents  of  the  bill — and 
Mr.  McClellan  bases  his  veto  on  their  arguments  and  their  estimates — con- 
demned their  own  arguments  on  class  legislation  and  discrimination  against 
primary  teachers  to  ridicule  and  scorn.  Yet  notwithstanding  the  above  state- 
ments that  there  are  men  all  through  the  grades  from  lA  upwards,  and  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  White  Bill  provides  for  equal  salaries  for  men 
snd    women  employed   in    any   one   schedule,    these   opponents,    determined   to 


558         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

defeat  "  the  women "  at  any  cost,  claim  that  the  bill  favors  "  women  5n 
certain  grades  and  not  in  others." 

In  this  connection,  the  Mayor  also  writes,  "  but  in  those  grades  where 
there  are  no  men  the  salaries  remain  unchanged."  It  seems  pitiable  that  a 
man  holding  the  high  office  of  executive  in  the  largest  city  in  America  should 
exhibit  either  such  gross  carelessness  or  ignorance.  The  bill  distinctly  pro- 
vides changes  in  the  salaries  of  women  "  in  those  grades  where  there  are 
no  men  "  by  raising  the  present  first  year  minimum  ox'  from  $600  to  $720, 
and  by  reducing  the  period  of  serving  for  a  maximum  from  17  years  to  12 
years.  Furthermore,  should  the  Mayor's  Board  of  Rducation  acting  under 
the  White  Bill  if  enacted  into  law,  fail  to  use  some  of  the  money  provided 
by  the  additional  mill,  in  raising  the  maximum  salaries  in  such  grades,  it 
would  be  guilty  of  misuse  of  the  powers  conferred  upon  it,  and  another  ap- 
peal to  Albany  would  be  justified. 

In  this  arguments,  the  Mayor  cancels  his  first  objection  with  his  third, 
and  reduces  both  to  zero.  Proof:  In  expanding  on  his  first  objection  he  sets 
forth  the  $9,000,000  estimate  set  forth  by  the  Men  Principals'  and  Teachers' 
Association,  and  the  Board  of  Education.  (No  disrespect  is  meant  by  thus 
placing  the  Board  second.  It  is  done  to  indicate  that  the  information  re- 
ceived is  that  neither  the  Board  of  Education  nor  the  Board  of  Estimate  has 
made  any  official  estimate  and  that  the  figures  quoted  by  the  opponents  01' 
the  bill  and  by  the  Mayor  were  largely  compiled  by  a  volunteer  force  of 
male  principals  and  teachers  who  were  permitted  access  to  the  records  by 
the  Board  of  Education).  Now  this  $9,000,000  estimate  is  obtained  by  as- 
summing  that  the  Board  will  pay  all  the  teachers  from  the  kindergarten 
through  the  8 A  grade  under  the  $900,  $2,160  schedule.  Therefore,  there  can 
be  no  "  class  legislation "  considered.  For  if  the  "  equalizing "  is  to  affect 
simply  the  women  working  in  schedules  secured  by  the  Davis  Law  to  male 
teachers,  only  positions  above  the  6B  grade  should  be  used  in  the  "  equaliz- 
ing estimate,"  and  even  the  figures  of  our  opponents  make  this  estimate 
only  $1,858,035.  So,  it  clearly  appears  that  "  class  legislation  "  and  "  $9,000,- 
000  "   invalidate  objections  one  and  three. 

Continuing  on  this  line,  a  line  which  the  opponents  of  this  bill  have  found 
most  effective  because  by  it  they  have  misled  a  few  "  primary  teachers,"  the 
Mayor  cites  more  of  the  estimates  submitted  by  the  Male  Principals'  and 
Teachers'  Association,  and  says  there  are  "  about  6,500  teachers  from  lA  to 
4B "  and  "  according  to  provisions  of  this  law  the  salaries  of  the  5,000 
women  teachers  in  the  first  eight  grades  will  remain  unchanged,  inasmuch 
as  there  are  no  men  serving  in  those  schedules."  If  as  quoted  above  there 
are  about  6,500  teachers  in  grades  from  lA  to  4B,  and  if  5,000  oi'  them 
are  women,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  other  1,500  are  men? 
But  Mr.  Maxwell  says,  "  519  men  from  2B  to  6B."  Again  Mr.  Maxwell's 
latest  annual  report  shows  only  1,701  men  in  the  entire  system.  So  the 
answer  to  the  problem:  Find  the  number  of  women  in  the  first  eight  grades, 
is,  if  based  on  the  foregoing  figures,  Reductio  ad  absurdam,  and  therefore  any 
arguments  based  thereon  are  absurd. 

FOURTH    OBJECTION 

"  The  Bill  would  destroy  in  a  large  measure  the  elasticity  of  the  present 
system  and  thus  seriously  impair  the  efficiency  of  the  service.  At  present, 
as  there  is  no  difference  in  salary  between  the  various  grades  up  to  7A  it  is 
possible  to  assign  the  various  teachers  to  those  grades  below  7A  for  which 
they  are  best  fitted." 

The  proponents  of  the  bill  challenge  any  one  to  find  in  Senate  Bill  12 18 
any  provision  which  prevents  the  Board  of  Education  from  making  the  same 
salary  schedule  cover  all  the  "  various  grades  up  to  7A."  The  proponents 
know  that  no  such  provision  can  be  found  in  the  bill,  hence  objection  four  is 
also  absurd. 

The  Mayor's  message,  in  connection  with  his  veto  of  Senate  Bill  1218,  is 
conspicuously  like  the  argument  made  by  Mr.   Stern  at  the  hearing  May  6| 


Hon.    Arthur    S.   So.mers, 

Father   of    "Equal    Pay"    Resolution    in    Board   of    Education, 
Dec.  22,   1909. 


'EQUAL   PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         559 

J  907.  A  search  of  the  "  minutes  of  the  Legislative  hearings  "  of  1900  would 
disclose  that  Mr.  Stern's  arguments  in  opposing  the  Davis  Bill  were  no 
more  reliable  or  logical  than  are  those  he  uses  in  opposing  the  White  Bill. 
Then  he  estimated  that  a  teacher's  salary  under  the  Davis  Law  would  be- 
come $13,500,  and  that  the  cost  of  the  Davis  Law  to  the  city  would  be 
$26,000,000. 

Knowing,  as  he  so  well  does,  that  the  present  Schedule  VI,  in  so  far 
as  it  affects  the  salary  of  a  male  teacher  in  any  grade  below  the  7A,  beyond 
assuring  said  male  teacher  of  an  initial  salary  of  $900  and  an  annual  incre- 
ment of  $105,  is  not  protected  by  law,  and  can  be  changed  at  any  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Education,  Mr.  Stern  nevertheless  makes  an  arbitary  and 
wholly  unauthorized  division  between  the  4A  and  4B  grades,  and  contem- 
plates paying  all  teachers  down  through  the  4B  a  salary  of  $2160  after  12 
years  of  service,  thus  forecasting  an  average  annual  increase  of  56%,  and 
further  contemplates  when  he  pleads  for  the  "  primary  teachers  " — not,  mind 
you,  when  he  hold  up  $9,000,000,  to  the  taxpayers — leaving  the  maximum  of 
$1240  for  teachers  below  the  4B  unchanged.  Is  it  surprising  in  the  i'ace  of 
such  decisions  that  out  of  66  cases  in  which  teachers  have  appealed  to  the 
courts,  from  the  decisions  of  the  Committee  on  By-Laws  and  Legislation — of 
which  Mr.  Stern  is  the  most  conspicuous  member — that  upwards  of  62  have 
been  won  by  the  teachers?  Is  it  not  sad,  however,  that  teachers  should  be 
obliged  to  spend  upwards  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  get  through  the 
Courts  of  Justice  the  rights  which  their  employer,  the  City,  through  its  Board 
of  Education,  denies  them? 

AN    ACT 

To  amend  the  Greater  New  York  charter  in  relation  to  the  fixing  and  regu- 
lating  of   the   salaries    of   members    of   the  supervising   and   the   teaching 
staff  of  the  public  schools  in  the  city  oH  New  York,  and  to  the  general 
school  fund. 
The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York  represented  in  Senate  and  Assembly 
do  enact  as  follows: 
Section   i.    Section  ten  hundred  and  ninety-one  of  the  Greater  New  York 
charter,  as  re-enacted  by  chapter  four  hundred   and  sixty-six  of   the  laws   of 
nineteen  hundred  and  one  is  hereby  amended  to  read  as  follows: 

Board  of  Education;  Power  to  Fix  Salaries;  Method;  Regulating. 
1091.  The  Board  of  Education  shall  subject  to  the  following  rules  and 
regulation  have  power  to  adopt  and  shall  adopt  by-laws,  fixing  and  regulating 
the  salaries  of  all  members  of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staff  of  the 
public  schools  in  the  City  of  New  York  and  establishing  schedules  of  such 
salaries. 

1.  The  salaries  of  men  and  women  in  the  supervising  and  teaching  staff 
(and  the  salaries  of  all  principals  and  teachers)  shall  be  fixed  and  regulated 
by  merit,  grade  of  class  taught,  length  of  service  and  experience  in  teaching 
or  supervising  (only  a  combination  of  these  considerations)  and  no  discrimina- 
tion or  difference  in  the  amount  of  salary  paid  men  and  women  shall  be 
made  on  account  of  their  difference  in  sex; 

2.  The  schedules  of  salaries  shall  be  uniform  (such  by-laws  shall  establish 
a  uniform  schedule  oi'  salaries  for  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staff) 
throughout  all  boroughs;  (which  schedule  shall  provide  for  an  equal  annual 
increasement,  etc.,  etc.,  as  in 

3.  The  first  year's  salary  of  a  member  of  the  teaching  staff  shall  not  be 
less  than  seven  hundred  and  twenty  dollars; 

4.  No  member  of  the  teaching  staff  shall  suffer  a  reduction  of  salary  be- 
cause of  his  or  her  transfer  from  an  elementary  school  to  a  high  school  or 
a   training  school; 

5.  The  difference  between  the  yearly  salary  of  a  teacher  of  a  boys'  class 
and  that  of  a  teacher  of  a  girls'  class  of  corresponding  grade  who  have  had 
the  same  number  of  years  teaching  experience  shall  not  exceed  one  hundred 
and  eighty   dollars; 


56o         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

6.  Each  schedule  shall  establish  an  initial  minimum  annual  salary  and 
equal  annual  increments  thereafter  not  to  exceed  twelve  until  the  maximum 
annual  salary  prescribed  in  the  schedule  shall  be  attained  and  no  such  incre- 
ment shall  be  less  than  the  smallest  annual  increment  paid  to  male  teachers 
in  the  public  elementary  schools  in  the  City  of  New  York  at  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  this  act; 

7.  All  increases  in  the  salary  of  a  member  of  the  supervising  or  the  teach- 
ing staff  shall  cease  with  the  fifth  year  and  again  with  the  ninth  year  f>f 
the  member's  service  unless  and  until  the  service  of  such  member  shall  have 
been  approved  after  inspection  and  investigation  as  meritorious  and  fit  by 
a  majority  of  a  board  consisting  of  the  district  superintendent  assigned  to 
the  district  or  school  in  which  such  member  is  serving  and  the  memberl  tif 
the  board  of  superintendents,  and  in  every  such  case  said  board  so  con- 
stituted as  aforesaid  shall  approve  or  disapprove  at  least  forty  days  before 
the  date  when  the  increase  of  salary  conditioned  upon  said  board's  approval 
will  be  due,  (provided,  however,  that  none  of  the  aforesaid  members  of 
the  supervising  and  teaching  staff  of  any  of 

Take  in  pp.  s.  6.  7  to  and  including  "per  annum"  1.14,  p.  7,  but  omitting 
all  italicized  words  and  sentences  and  all  bracket  signs  except  the  bracket 
sign  after  said  "per  annum") 

8.  Each  member  of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staff  shall,  under  the 
by-laws  adopted  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  this  section,  at  once 
have  all  the  rights  to  which  such  member  is  entitled  by  reason  of  merit, 
grade  of  class  taught,  length  of  service,  and  experience  in  teaching  or  super- 
vising; 

9.  The  board  of  examiners  shall  issue  to  a  principal  who  has  or  a  teacher 
who  has  had  experience  in  schools  other  than  the  public  schools  (oi")  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  a  certificate  stating  (that  the  experience  of  such  teacher 
is  equivalent  to  a  certain)  the  number  of  years  of  service  and  the  experi- 
ence in  the  elementary ,  or  as  the  case  may  he,  in  the  high  or  training  schools 
in  (of)  the  city  to  which  the  service  and  experience  of  the  holder  of  the 
certificate  is  equivalent  and  such  certificate  shall  be  final  and  conclusive  as 
to  the  rating  of  the  holder  thereof  for  length  of  service  and  experience  on 
becoming  a  member  of  the  supervising  or  the  teaching  staff  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  City  of  New  York;   (the  board  of  examiners  shall 

Take  in  i.  i.  20-26  p.  6  and  to  and  including  "in  such  certificates"  on  i.  6 
P,  8,) 

:o.  No  salary  (now  paid  to)  of  any  member  of  the  supervising  or  (and) 
the  teaching  staff  of  (any  of)  the  public  schools  in  the  City  of  New  York 
at  the  time  this  act  goes  into  effect  and  who  continue  such  member  'there- 
after shall  be  reduced  by  the  operation   of  this  section. 

(and  the  aforesaid  annual  equal  increment  for  each  etc.  etc.  etc.  take  in 
I.    t.    10-16,  p.   8,   omitting  italicized  words  and  bracket  signs.) 

The  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  of  the  City  of  New  York  shall 
appropriate  for  the  general  school  fund  for  the  year  nineteen  hundred  and 
nine  and  annually  for  each  year  thereafter  an  amount  equivalent  to  not  less 
than  four  mills  on  every  dollar  of  assessed  valuation  of  the  real  and  per- 
sonal estate  in  the  City  of  New  York  liable  to  taxation;  and  at  least  ninety- 
three  percentum  of  the  amount  appropriate  for  the  general  school  shall  be 
set  aside  for  the  payment  of  the  salaries  of  the  members  of  the  supervising 
and  the  teaching  staff  of  the  regular  public  day  schools  in  the  City  of  New 
York. 

2.  All  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act 
are  hereby  repealed. 

3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  January  first  nineteen  hundred  and  nine. 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         561 

THE    DAVIS-SMITH    BILL— 1909 


To  establish  uniform  compensation  to  all  holding:  appointments  after  com- 
petitive examination,    in   the   several    departments   of   government. 

The  People  of  the  state  of  New  York  represented  in  the  Senate  and  As- 
sembly  do  enact   as  follows: 

Section  i.  In  all  state,  county,  and  municipal  departments  of  government, 
there  shall  be  but  one  salary  for  one  and  the  same  position  whose  incum- 
bent is  appointed   from  an  eligible  list  after  competitive  examination. 

Section  2.  All  acts  and  parts  of  acts  in  so  far  as  inconsistent  with  this 
act  are   hereby   repealed. 

Section  3.  This  act  shall  take  effect  October  first,  one  thousand  nine 
hundred  and  nine. 

N.  B.— Never  reported  out  of  committee. 

GLEDHILL-FOLEY     BILL— 1909 


To  amend  the  Greater  New  York  charter,  in  relation  to  the  fixing  and 
regulating  of  the  salaries  of  members  of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching 
staff  of  the  public  schools  in  the  city  of  New  Work,  and  to  the  general 
school  fund. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and  As- 
sembly, do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  i.  Section  ten  hundred  and  ninety-one  of  the  Greater  New  York 
charter,  as  re-enacted  by  chapter  four  hundred  and  sixty-six  of  the  laws  of 
nineteen    hundred   and    one,    is    hereby    amended    to    read   as   follows: 

Board    of    Education:    Power    to    Fix    Salaries;    Method;    Regulating. 

Sec.  1091  The  board  of  education  shall  subject  to  the  following  rules  and 
restrictions  have  power  to  adopt  and  shall  adopt  by-laws  fixing  and  reg^ulat- 
ing  the  salaries  of  all  members  of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staff  of 
the  public  schools  in  the  city  of  New  York  and  establishing  schedules  of 
such   salaries. 

There  shall  be  a  uniform  schedule  of  salaries  for  the  supervising  and  the 
teaching  staff  throughout  all  boroughs,  providing  for  initial  salaries  and 
annual   increment  thereof   as    follows: 

1.  In  kindergartens  and  grades  of  the  first   six  years, 

a.  The  initial  salary  of  a  teacher  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  class,  seven  hun- 
dred and  twenty  dollars  per  annum;  in  grades  of  the  first  and  second 
years,  in  a  boys'  class,  seven  hundred  and  eighty  dollars;  in  g^rades  of  the 
third  and  fourth  years,  in  a  mixed  class,  seven  hundred  and  eighty  dollars, 
and  in  a  boys'  class,  eight  hundred  and  fifty-two  dollars;  and  in  grades 
of  the  fifth  and  sixth  years,  in  a  mixed  class,  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
two  dollars,  and  in  a  boys'  class,  nine  hundred  dollars;  increasing  by  an- 
nual increments  of  seventy-five  dollars  until  the  thirteenth  year,  when  the 
maximum   shall   be  reached. 

b.  The  initial  salary  of  an  assistant  to  principal  supervising  grades  of  the 
first  six  years  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school,  eighteen  hundred  dollars;  in  a 
mixed  school,  nineteen  hundred  and  forty  dollars;  and  in  a  boys'  school, 
twenty-one  hundred  dollars;  increasing  by  annual  increments  of  one  hun- 
dred fifty  dollars  until  the  third  year,  when  the  maximum  shall  be  reached. 


562        EQUAL  PAY  'FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

c.  The  initial  salary  of  a  principal  of  at  least  twenty  classes  in  grades 
of  the  first  six  years  shall  be;  in  a  girls*  school,  twenty-four  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars;  in  a  mixed  school,  twenty-six  hundred  dollars,  and  in  a  boys' 
school,  twenty-seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars;  increasing  by  annual  incre- 
ments of  two  hundred  and  firty  dollars  until  the  fourth  year,  when  the 
maximum  shall   be  reached. 

2.  In  schools  including  or  consisting  of  the  grades  of  the  seventh  and 
eighth  years. 

a.  The  initial  salary  of  a  teacher  in  grades  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
years  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school,  $1140;  in  a  mixed  school,  $1290;  and  in 
a  boys'  school,  $1440;  increasing  by  annual  increments  of  $150  until  the 
third  year,  when  the  maximum  shall  be  reached. 

b.  The  initial  salary  of  an  assistant  to  principal  supervising  in  grades  of 
the  seventh  and  eighth  years  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school,  $1950;  in  a  mixed 
school,  $2100;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $2250;  increasing  by  annual  incre- 
ments of  $150  until   the  third  year,   when  the  maximum  shall  be  reached. 

c.  The  initial  salary  of  a  principal  having  twenty-five  or  more  teachers 
in  the  grades  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school, 
$2700;  in  a  mixed  school,  $2850;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $3000;  increasing  by 
annual  increments  of  $250  until  the  fourth  year,  when  the  maximum  shall 
be  reached. 

3.  In  schools  including  or  consisting  of  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth 
years, 

a.  The  initial  salary  of  a  teacher  in  the  grades  of  the  seventh,  eighth 
and  ninth  years  shall  be;  in  a  girls'  school,  $1140;  in  a  mixed  school, 
$1290;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $1440;  increasing  by  annual  increments  of 
$150  until   the  third   year  when   the   maximum   shall  be  reached. 

b.  The  initial  salary  of  an  assistant  to  principal  supervising  in  the  grades 
of  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  grades  shall  be;  in  a  girls'  school,  $2150; 
in  a  mixed  school,  $2300;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $2450;  increasing  by  annual 
increments  of  $150  until  the  third  year,  when  the  maximum  shall  be 
reached. 

c.  The  initial  salary  of  a  principal  having  twenty-five  or  more  teachers 
in  the  grades  of  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  years  shall  be:  in  a  girls' 
school,  $3200;  in  a  mixed  school  $3350;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $3500; 
increasing  by  annual  increments  of  $250  until  the  third  year,  when  the 
maximum  shall  be  reached. 

4.  In  high   schools   and  training  schools   for  teachers, 

a.  The  initial  salary  of  a  junior  teacher  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school, 
$900;  in  a  mixed  school,  $1000;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $1100;  increasing 
by  annual  increments  of  $100  until  the  third  year,  when  the  maximum 
shall   be   reached. 

b.  The  initial  salary  of  an  assistant  teacher  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school, 
$1250;  in  a  mixed  school,  $1400;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $1550;  increasing 
by  annual  increments  of  $150  until  the  ninth  year,  when  the  maximum 
shall  be  reached. 

c.  The  initial  salary  of  a  first  assistant  shall  be:  in  a  girls'  school  $2600; 
in  a  mixed  school,  $2750;  and  in  a  boys'  school,  $2900;  increasing  by  an- 
nual increments  of  $200  until  the  fourth  year,  when  the  maximum  shall 
be  reached. 

d.  The  salary  of  a  principal  supervising  at  least  twenty-five  teachers 
shall  be  $5000;  of  one  supervising  sixty  or  more  teachers,  not  more  than 
?5Soo. 

5.  All  increase  in  the  salary  of  a  member  of  the  supervising  or  the 
teaching  staff  shall  cease  with  the  fii'th  year  and  again  with  the  ninth  year 
of  the  member's  service  unless  and  until  the  service  of  such  member  shall 
have  been  approved  after  inspection  and  investigation  as  meritorious  and 
fit  by  a  majority  of  a  board  consisting  of  the  district  superintendent  as- 
signed to  the  district  or  school  in  which  such  member  is  serving  and  the 
member  of  the  board  of  superintendents,  and  in  every  such  case  said  board  so 
constituted    as    aforesaid    shall    approve    or    disapprove    at    least    forty    days 


EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL   WORK         563 

before  the  date   when  the  increase  of  salary  conditioned  upon  said   board's 
approval  will  be  due. 

6.  No  salary  of  any  member  of  the  supervising  or  the  teaching  staff  of 
the  public  schools  in  the  city  of  New  York  shall  be  reduced  by  the  opera- 
tion of  these  schedules;  and  this  provision  shall  be  construed  to  protect  all 
salary  contracts  now  in  operation  so  that  no  losses  shall  ensue  by  reason 
of  alteration  oi'  the  annual  increments;  and  it  recommends,  further,  that 
each  member  of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staflE  shall  at  once  be- 
come entitled  to  all  the  emolument  in  accordance  with  above  schedule  to 
which  said  person  is  entitled  by  reason  of  merit,  experience,  and  position 
held;  but  the  board  of  education  may  limit  the  expense  of  putting  these 
schedules  into  effect  by  making  the  highest  salary  to  be  paid  to  any  teacher 
or  supervisor  in  the  year  1910  and  each  year  thereafter  until  the  maximum 
salary  shall  have  been  reached,  the  salary  in  the  proposed  schedule  which 
is  equal  to  or  next  higher  than  the  amount  that  would  be  obtained  by  adding 
-two  of  the  annual  increments  in  said  schedule  to  the  salary  due  said 
teacher  or  supervisor  under  the   present  schedule. 

7.  Principals  of  elementary  schools  having  at  least  twelve  classes  on  the 
date  of  the  adoption  of  these  schedules  shall  receive  all  the  emoluments 
and  benefits  of  said  schedule,  but  no  principal  of  an  elementary  school 
appointed  after  such  date  shall  receive  the  salary  fixed  by  said  schedules, 
except  those  in  charge  of  schools  having  at  least  twenty  classes. 

8.  The  board  of  estimate  and  apportionment  of  the  city  of  New  York 
shall  appropriate  for  the  general  school  fund  for  the  year  nineteen  hundred 
and  nine  and  annually  for  each  year  thereafter  an  amount  equivalent  to 
not  less  than  four  mills  on  every  dollar  of  assessed  valuation  of  the  real 
and  personal  estate  in  the  city  of  New  York  liable  to  taxation;  and  at 
least  ninety-three  per  centum  of  the  amount  appropriated  for  the  general 
school  fund  shall  be  set  aside  for  the  payment  of  the  salaries  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  supervising  and  the  teaching  staff  of  the  regular  public  day 
schools  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

9.  AH  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act 
are  hereby  repealed. 

10.  This  act  shall  take   effect  January  first,  nineteen  hundred   and  ten. 

THAT    PART    OF    REPORT    OF   THE    CONCILIATION    COMMITTEE 
NOT  INCLUDED  IN  GLEDHILL-FOLEY  BILL- 

The  undersigned,  acting  individually,  and  not  in  any  representative  ca- 
pacity, as  members  of  a  committee  which  has  had  for  its  purpose  the  con- 
sideration and  preparation  of  plans  whereby  the  standards  of  education  in 
this  city  may  be  advanced,  and  the  many  divergent  and  often  opposing 
interests  of  the  members  of  the  teaching  profession  may  be  harmonized, 
and  that  this  may  be  done  without  placing  too  heavy  a  burden  upon  the 
taxpayer,   respectfully   submit  the   following  report: 

The  committee  approves  a  plan  of  organization  which  would  confine 
the  elementary  school  to  the  kindergarten  and  the  grades  of  the  first  six 
years  of  the  present  elementary  school  course;  would  establish  an  inter- 
mediate school,  called  in  the  report  the  sub-high  school,  for  the  grades  of 
the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  years;  and  would  limit  the  high  school  to 
grades  of  the  tenth,  eleventh  and  twelfth  years. 


SPECIAL    SALARY    RECOMMENDATIONS 

The  committee  believes  that  an  ideal  school  should  be  limited  to  20  or 
30  classes  and  deplores  the  organization  of  excessively  large  schools;  but 
it  recognizes  the  necessity  which  demands  these  in  many  sections  of  this 
city  and  recommends  that  in  recognition  of  the  greater  responsibility  and 
the  heavier  burden  an  additional  salary  of  not  more  than  $500  per  annum 
shall  be   paid  to   principals   supervising  sixty   or   more   teachers. 


564         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

After  much  consideration  and  discussion  this  committee  has  decided  that, 
in  view  of  the  evident  intention  of  the  board  of  education  to  establish 
vocational  schools  in  the  very  near  future,  and  in  view  of  the  consequent 
necessity  for  a  special  adjustment  of  the  salaries  relating  to  special  sub- 
jects, it  is  best  at  this  time  to  recommend  no  definite  salaries  for  directors, 
assistant  directors,  and  teachers  of  special  subjects;  but  this  committee  does 
recommend  that  there  be  revision  of  the  present  salary  schedules  of  said 
directors,  assistant  directors,  and  teachers,  and  that  the  general  plan  of  the 
schedule   recommended   above   be   followed  in  such   revision. 

The  committee  recommends  that  the  initial  salary  of  a  clerk  in  an 
elementary  school  shall  be  $600  per  annum,  increasing  by  annual  incre- 
ments of   $60   until   the  sixth   year,   when   the   maximum   will  be   reached. 

The  committee  recommends  that  substitutes  in  elementary  schools  shall 
receive   not   less  than   $3   per   diem. 

The  committee  recommends  that  the  salary  of  no  teacher  shall  be  reduced 
by  reason  of  transfer  from  elementary  to  sub-high,  high,   or  training  schools. 

GENERAL   RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The   committee    recommends    the    restoration    of    the    "  four   mill    tax." 

The  committee  recommends  that  all  provisions  relating  to  the  tenure  of 
office  in   the  present  charter  be   continued. 

The  committee  recommends  that  in  the  grades  of  the  first  six  years  the 
classes  be  mixed  classes. 

The  committee  recommends  that  no  salary  of  any  member  of  the  super- 
vising or  the  teaching  staff  of  the  public  schools  in  the  city  of  New  York 
shall  be  reduced  by  the  operation  of  these  schedules;  and  this  provision 
shall  be  construed  to  protect  all  salary  contracts  now  in  operation  so  that 
no  losses  shall  ensue  by  reason  of  alteration  of  the  annual  increments;  and 
it  recommends,  further,  that  each  member  of  the  supervising  and  the  teach- 
ing staflf  shall  at  once  become  entitled  to  all  the  emolument  in  accordance 
with  above  schedule  to  which  said  person  is  entitled  by  reason  of  merit, 
experience,  and  position  held;  but  the  Board  oi'  Education  may  limit  the 
expense  of  putting  these  schedules  into  effect  by  making  the  highest  salary 
to  be  paid  to  any  teacher  or  supervisor  in  the  year  1910  and  each  year 
thereafter  until  the  maximum  salary  shall  have  been  reached,  the  salary 
in  the  proposed  schedule  which  is  equal  to  or  next  higher  than  the  amount 
that  would  be  obtained  by  adding  two  of  the  annual  increments  in  said 
schedule  to  the  salary  due  said  teacher  or  supervisor  under  the  present 
schedule. 

The  committee  recommends  that  principals  of  elementary  schools  having 
at  least  twelve  classes  on  the  date  of  the  adoption  of  these  schedules  shall 
receive  all  the  emoluments  and  benefits  of  said  schedule;  but  no  principal 
of  an  elementary  school  appointed  after  such  date  shall  receive  the  salary 
fixed  by  said  schedules,  except  those  in  charge  of  schools  having  at  least 
twenty   classes. 

The  committee  recommends  that  such  changes  be  made  in  the  pension 
law  as  will  do  equal  justice  to  all  members  of  the  teaching  and  super- 
vising  force. 

The  committee  recommends  that  the  present  charter  provisions  for  deter- 
mining fitness  and  merit  of  teachers  shall  be  retained  in  full  force  and 
effect. 

The  committee  recommends  that  from  time  to  time  and  in  such  sub- 
high  schools  as  the  school  authorities  may  deem  expedient  there  may  be 
established  industrial  or  vocational  courses  in  addition  to  the  regular  course 
leading  to  the  high  school  and  college. 

The  members  of  the  committee  deem  it  proper  to  state  that  they  have 
held  many  sessions  of  protracted  length  since  December  18,  1908,  during 
which  every  pertinent  phase  of  the  question  under  discussion  was  thor- 
oughly considered,  with  the  foregoing  results.  They  further  deem  it  proper 
to   note   that    Mr.    Magnus   Gross   and    Mr.    James   J.    Sbeppard   have    been 


EQUAL  PAY   FOR  EQUAL   WORK         565 

members    of    this   committee    and    have    participated    in   its    deliberations,    but 
resigned   before    the   completion    of   its    work. 

The  signatures  of  the  committee  do  not  necessarily  mean  that  each  mem- 
ber is  entirely  in  favor  of  every  detail  of  the  report;  and  some  may  not 
have  felt  themselves  competent  to  judge  in  instances  where  knowledge  of 
technicalities  was  demanded;  but  they  do  mean  that  the  committee  believe 
that  the  report  expresses  the  best  method  of  conciliating  the  teachers  of 
the  city  and  that  the  committee  feel  strongly  that  conciliation  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  good  oi'  the  schools. 

March   2,    1909. 

Respectfully    submitted, 
(Sd.)  Katharine  D.   Blake. 
(Sd.)  Charles   O.   Dewey. 
(Sd.)  W.   B.   Gunnison. 
(5d.)  Katharine  A.    McCanh. 
(Sd.)  Annie  B.  Moriarity. 
(Sd.)  Mary  Moore  Orr. 
(Sd.)  Frank    K.    Perkins. 
(Sd.)  Mariam   Sutro  Price. 
(Sd.)  Grace   C.    Strachan. 
(Sd.)  J.    Edw.   Swanstrom. 
(Sd.)  Kate   E.   Turner,   Secretary. 
(Sd.)  Henry   N.   Tifft,   Chairman. 

Under  Section  44,  3A  of  the  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education,  the 
following  permission   had   to  be  obtained: 

May   8,    1909. 
Miss  Grace   C.   Strachan, 
No.    1308  Pacific  St, 
Brooklyn,  N.   Y. 
Dear  Madam: 

In   accordance   with  your   request,   permission   is   hereby   granted    to  you 
to    attend    the    hearing    on    the    Gledhill-Foley    bill    before    his    Honor,    the 
Mayor,   on  Tuesday,  May   11,    1909,  at  ten   o'clock  a.  m. 
Very    truly    yours, 

Egerton    L.    Winthrop,    Jr., 
President,    Board   of    Education. 
By-Laws,   Board  of   Education: 

Sec.  44,  sub.  3A.  Absence  from  duty  on  the  part  of  the  City  Super- 
intendent of  Schools,  any  Associate  Superintendent  or  District  Superin- 
tendent, or  any  other  member  of  the  supervising  or  teaching  staff,  or  any 
member  of  the  board  of  Examiners,  or  other  salaried  officer  or  employee  of 
the  Board  of  Education,  for  the  purpose  of  advocating  or  opposing  any 
legislative  or  other  measure  or  proposition  affecting  the  public  schools  or 
the  public  school  system,  before  any  official  or  body  having  jurisdiction  in 
the  matter,  is  prohibited,  except  by  express  permission  of  the  Board  of 
Education  or  of  its  President,  or,  in  the  absence  of  the  President,  of  the 
Vice-President;  and  the  Board  of  Education  may  cause  charges  to  be  pre- 
ferred against  any  person  violating  this  provision.  Absence  in  pursuance 
of  permission  granted  under  the  provisions  of  this  sub-division  shall  not 
be  considered  absence  from  duty.  (This  subdivision  was  adopted  Oct 
23t    1907-) 

April   7,    191  o. 
Mr.  Egerton  L  Winthrop,  Jr., 

President   Board  of  Education. 
My  dear  Mr.  Winthrop, 

I   respectfully   submit  the   following  resolution: 

WHEREAS,   Mr.   Abraham   Stern   has: 

(i)  voted  against  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  on 
every   occasion  possible  since   its  organization  in    February,    1906; 


^66        EQUAL  PAY.  FOR  EQUAL   WORK 

(2)  appeared  and  spoken  in  opposition  to  it  at  Albany  at  the  hearing 
before  the  Assembly  Committee  on  Affairs  oi'  Cities  and  before  Governor 
Hughes; 

(3)  appeared  and  spoken  against  it  at  two  public  hearings  before  Mayor 
McClellan  and  at  least  one  public  hearing  of  the  Charter  Legislative  Com- 
mission ; 

(4)  attended  and  addressed  at  least  one  meeting  of  the  Association  of 
Men  Teachers  and  Principals  where  plans  were  being  made  to  defeat  the 
aims   of   the    Interborough    Association   of    Women    Teachers; 

(5)  traveled  to  Albany  with  the  representatives  of  the  associations  of 
male  teachers  and  principals  and  other  opponents  of  the  Interborough  As- 
sociation  of   Women  Teachers; 

(6)  attended  and  addressed  at  least  one  meeting  of  a  so-called  Primary 
Teachers'  League  managed  by  male  teachers  opposed  to  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers, 

(7)  and  been  throughout  the  existence  of  our  association  a  member  of 
the  Committee  on  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  which  has  reported 
unfavorably  on  every  proposition  and  resolution  affecting  the  Interborough 
Association  of   Women   Teachers; 

AND  WHEREAS,    Mr.    Robert  L.    Harrison   has: 

(i)  voted  against  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  on 
every  occasion  possible  since  its  organization  in  February,    1906; 

(2)  appeared  and  spoken  in  opposition  to  it  at  Albany  at  the  hearing  be- 
fore the  Assembly  Committee  on  Affairs  of  Cities  and  before  Governor 
Hughes; 

(3)  appeared  and  spoken  against  it  at  two  public  hearings  before  Mayor 
McClellan  and  at  least  one  public  hearing  of  the  Charter  Legislative  Com- 
mission; 

(4)  traveled  to  Albany  with  the  representatives  of  the  Associations  of 
Male  Teachers  and  Principals  and  other  opponents  of  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers; 

(5)  and  been  throughout  the  existence  of  our  association  a  member  of 
the  Committee  on  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  which  has  reported 
unfavorably  on  every  proposition  and  resolution  affecting  the  Interborough 
Association   of  Women  Teachers; 

AND  WHEREAS,   Mr.   George  W.   Wingate  has: 

(i)  voted  against  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  on 
every   occasion   possible    since    its  organization  in   February,    1906; 

(2)  and  been  throughout  the  existence  of  our  association  a  member  of 
the  Committee  on  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education  which  has  reported 
unfavorably  on  every  proposition  and  resolution  affecting  the  Interborough 
Association  of  Women  Teachers; 

AND  WHEREAS,   Mr.  John  Green  has: 

(i)  voted  against  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  on 
every   occasion   possible  since  its   organization   in   February,    1906; 

AND  WHEREAS,  Mr.  Egerton  L.  Winthrop,  Jr.,  as  President  of  the 
Board  of  Education  is  ex-oflicio  member  of  all  committees; 

AND  WHEREAS,  Mr.  Winthrop  has: 

(i)  voted  gainst  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women  Teachers  on 
every   occasion   possible   since    its   organization  in    February,    1906; 

(2)  appeared  and  spoken  against  it  at  two  public  hearings  before  Mayor 
McClellan  and  at  least  one  public  hearing  of  the  Charter  Legislative  Com- 
mission; 

AND  WHEREAS,  President  Winthrop  has  appointed  Mr.  Abraham  Stern, 
Mr.  Robert  L.  Harrison,  Mr.  George  W.  Wingate,  Mr,  John  Greene  and 
Mr_  A,  S.   Somers  as  the  Teachers'   Commission  of  the  Board  of  Education; 

AND  WHEREAS,  The  vote  on  the  "  Somers  Resolution  "  at  the  Special 
Meeting  of  the  Board  of  Education  held  on  March  16,  1910,  was  twenty- 
three   to   sixteen    against   the    Interborough    Association    of    Women    Teachers; 

THEREFORE,  RESOLVED:  That  the  Interborough  Association  of 
Women   Teachers   regrets   that    the   Teachers'    Salaries  Commission   as   above 


•EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK         567 

constituted   does   not  more   fairly   represent   the    Board   of    Education   on  thij 
question  of  salaries. 

Yours  very  truly, 

Grace  C.   Strachan^ 
President,    Interborough    Association 
of  Women  Teachers. 

DEPARTMENT    OF   EDUCATION 

THE    CITY    OF     NEW     YORK 

Examination   for   License   as   Teacher    of    Shopwork   in   Elementary   Schools 

Office  of  the  Board  of  Examiners, 
Park  Avenue  and   sgth   Street, 
New   York,    September  30,    1909. 

A  written  examination  of  applicants  for  license  as  teacher  of  shopwork 
in  the  elementary  schools  of  the  City  of  New  York  will  be  conducted  by 
the  Board  of  Examiners  on  Thursday  and  Friday,  March  3  and  4,  19 10, 
commencing  at  9.30  a.  m.,  in  Room  422,  Hall  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
Park  Avenue  and  S9th  Street,  Borough  of  Manhattan.  An  oral  eaxmina- 
tion  will  be  given  at  the  call  of  the   Board  of   Examiners. 

No  person  will  be  eligible  for  this  license  whose  age  on  March  3,  1910, 
is  under  eighteen  or  over  thirty-five  eyars.  Under  this  provision  an  appli- 
cant will  be  regarded  as  eligible  up  to  and  including  the  day  preceding  his 
thirty-sixth   birthday. 

Each  applicant  must  have  the  qualifications  indicated  under  (a),  (fe),  or 
(c)     following: 

(a)  Graduation  from  a  satisfactory  high  school  or  institution  of  equal 
or  higher  rank,  or  an  equivalent  academic  training  or  the  passing  of  an 
academic  examination;  and  the  completion  of  a  satisfactory  course  of  pro- 
fessional training   of  at  least  two  years  in  shopwork. 

(b)  Graduation  from  a  college  course  recognized  by  the  Regents  of  the 
University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  which  includes  satisfactory  courses 
in  the  principles  of  education  and   in  shopwork. 

(c)  Two  years  of  successful  experience  as  substitute  teacher  of  shopwork 
in  the  schools  of  the  City  of  New  York,  together  with  the  completion  of 
a   satisfactory   professional    course    in   shopwork. 

The  completion  of  a  course  of  90  hours  in  principles  and  practice  of 
shopwork  teaching  at  a  recognized  institution  shall  be  regarded  as  a  satis- 
factory course   in   shopwork   within  the   meaning   of  clause    (<:)_ 

Candidates  who,  prior  to  July  i,  1910,  will  have  established  eligibility 
under  any  one   of  the  preceding  heads  may  enter  this  examination. 

The  written  examination  will  be  upon  mechanical  and  freehand  drawing, 
constructive  and  applied  design,  geometry,  the  principles  and  practice  of  shop- 
work,  methods  of  instruction,  and  class  management. 

The  oral  examination  will  include  tests  of  technical  skill  and  knowledge. 
A  practical  test  of  ability  to  teach  will  also  form  a  part  of  the  examin- 
ation. 

In  the  written  and  the  oral  answers  to  examination  questions,  an  ap- 
plicant must  give  evidence  of  his  ability  to  use  the  English  language  cor- 
rectly. 

All  documents  submitted  as  evidence  of  scholarship,  training  or  experi- 
ence, must  be  originals,  and  must  be  accompanied  by  duplicate  copies.  The 
filing  of  such  documents  is  optional.  No  diplomas  will  be  received,  except  in 
cases  where  the  institution  is  no  longer  in  existence. 

Note:  The  academic  examination  required  of  certain  applicants  under 
class  (a)  will  be  conducted  by  the  Board  of  Examiners  on  January  24 
1910,  and  again  in  May,  1910.  A  separate  circular  giving  particulars  will 
be   forwarded   on   request. 

All  persons  in  doubt  as  to  their   eligibility,   and  desiring   information  re- 


568         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

specting    the    matter,    may    communicate    with    the    Board    of    Examiners    not 
later  than  February   15^   1910. 

A  certificate  of  physical  fitness  made  after  examination  by  one  of  the 
physicians  of  the  Board  of  Education  will  be  required  in  the  case  of  each 
applicant.  No  person  will  be  licensed  who  has  not  been  vaccinated  within 
eight   years,    unless   the   examining   physician   recommends   otherwise. 

The  licenses  issued  under  these  regulations  hold  for  the  period  of  one 
year,  and  may  be  renewed  for  two  successive  years,  without  examination, 
in  case  the  work  of  the  holder  is  satisfactory.  At  the  close  of  the  third 
year  of  continuous  successful  service,  the  City  Superintendent  may  make 
the   license    permanent. 

Section  67,  subdivision  12,  of  the  By-Laws  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
reads  as  follows: 

"  No  married  woman  shall  be  appointed  to  any  teaching  or  supervising 
position  in  the  day  public  schools  unless  her  husband  is  incapacitated  from 
physical  or  mental  disease  to  earn  a  livelihood,  or  has  continuously  aband- 
oned her  for  not  less  than  three  years  prior  to  the  date  of  appointment, 
provided  proof  satisfactory  to  the  Board  of  Superintendents  is  furnished  to 
establish  such  physical  or  mental  disability  or  abandonment." 

The  salary  for  men  is  $900  the  first  year,  with  an  annual  increase  of 
$105  for  meritorious  service,  to  a  maximum  of  $2160;  for  women,  $900 
the  first  year,  with  an  annual  increase  of  $100,  to  a  maximum  of  $1200. 
Credit  is  allowed  for  outside  experience  of  sufficient  length  and  satisfactory 
character,   in   accordance   with   a  fixed   schedule. 

Note:  The  examination  will  begin  promptly  at  the  time  stated  above,  and 
no  applicant  who   it   late  will  be  allowed  to   enter   the  examination  room. 

WILLIAM    H.    MAXWELL, 
City  Superintendent  of   Schools. 


THE   AUTHOR 

Grace  Charlotte  Strachan  was  bom  in  Buffalo,  New 
York,  and  was  graduated  from  the  Buffalo  Normal 
School.  After  teaching  in  elementary  and  high  schools 
there  she  came  to  Brooklyn,  at  the  request  of  Prof.  Frank- 
lin W.  Hooper,  then  a  member  of  the  Board .  of  Edu- 
cation. Before  securing  appointment  here,  she  had  to 
obtain  licenses  B  and  A.  In  the  examination  for  the 
first  she  stood  highest  in  a  list  of  nearly  three  hundred 
candidates. 

After  a  year  at  Public  School  No.  ii,  Miss  Strachan 
was  appointed  to  the  faculty  of  the  Training  School  for 
Teachers.  Two  years  later  she  was  appointed  Principal 
of  Public  School  No.  42,  which  was  made  a  branch  of 
the  training  School  for  Teachers.  She  held  this  position 
four  years.  Thus  for  six  year?  Miss  Strachan  was  con- 
nected with  the  teachers  in  training,  and  she  has  since 
found  many  of  her  "  old  girls "  in  the  schools  she  has 
supervised.  She  was  elected  associate  superintendent  of 
schools  in  Brooklyn,  July  3,  1900,  and  under  the  new 
charter  became  district  superintendent  of  schools  of  the 
City  of  New  York. 

While  principal  of  Public  School  No.  42,  Miss  Strachan 
taught  in  Evening  High  School,  and  later  served  as  prin- 
cipal of  Evening  School  No.  85. 

As  principal  she  was  especially  noted  for  her  work  in 
developing  the  character  of  her  pupils.  The  boys  and 
girls  organized  into  companies  elected  their  own  officers, 
and  took  practically  entire  charge  of  the  school  grounds, 
recesses,  dismissals,  and  fire  drills.  She  also  organized  an 
Anti-Cigarette  League. 

The  value  of  school-room  decoration  in  the  develop- 
ment of  character  was  impressed  upon  the  teachers,  and 
soon  the  building,  though  old  and  dingy,  became  one  of 
the  most  attractive  schoolhouses  in  the  city. 

569 


570         EQUAL  PAY  FOR  EQUAL    WORK 

As  district  superintendent,  Miss  Strachan  has  probably 
come  into  contact  with  more  pupils  and  teachers  than 
any  other  superintendent  during  the  past  ten  years,  on 
account  of  frequent  changes  of  assignment. 

She  is  now  in  charge  of  districts  33  and  35,  which 
register  upwards  of  32,000  children,  mostly  of  foreign 
birth  or  parentage.  As  a  result  of  the  preponderance  of 
foreigners  and  of  the  overcrowded  conditions  of  the 
district,  there  are  thousands  of  over-age  children.  Her 
division  superintendent  recently  said  that  there  were  no 
other  districts  in  the  city  where  the  "  special "  children 
were  being  so  well  cared  for.  The  first  class  for  deaf 
children  in  Brooklyn  was  established  in  one  of  her  schools 
last  February,  and  plans  are  ready  for  the  establishment 
of  classes  for  the  blind,  crippled  and  anaemic  children, 
as  soon  as  money  for  the  transportation  of  such  children 
is  secured. 

In  May,  1909,  2,500  pupils  from  her  districts  gave  an 
exhibition  of  folk  dancing  and  wand,  Indian  club,  and 
dumb  bell  exercises,  which  was  declared  by  Mr.  Egerton 
L.  Winthrop,  Jr.,  President  of  the  Board,  Superintendent 
Meleney,  and  other  distinguished  visitors,  the  best  of  its 
kind  they  had  ever  seen. 

On  the  occasion  of  her  re-election  in  January,  1910, 
rumors  that  she  might  be  punished  for  her  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  Interborough  Association  of  Women 
Teachers  proved  unfounded.  The  Brooklyn  Eagle  of 
January  10,  1910,  commenting  on  these  rumors,  said  "  Her 
name  has  been  mentioned,  indeed,  in  connection  with  the 
city  superintendency  and  with  an  associate  superintend- 
ency." 

Miss  Strachan's  work  as  the  leader  of  the  women 
teachers  in  their  campaign  for  "  equal  pay "  is  familiar  to 
any  one  who  reads  the  newspapers.  She  believes  that 
success  is  at  hand,  and  that  it  will  be  won  in  the  most 
dignified  and  desirable  way — through  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation and  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  UBRARY  FAOUTY 


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